Chief enforcement officer quits EPA (To Work For Wal-Mart)

[matcom]

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WASHINGTON -- John Peter Suarez, the Environmental Protection Agency's chief enforcement officer and a protege of former Administrator Christine Whitman, resigned Monday to become general counsel of the Sam's Club division of Wal-Mart.

Suarez is the second assistant administrator of the EPA to leave since former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt was named to head the agency two months ago, and he is the fifth major EPA enforcement official to quit since Bush became president.

Suarez, unlike his predecessor, Eric Schaeffer, sent Bush a relatively friendly resignation letter praising the EPA for achieving progress on the environment through cooperation with industry and selective targeting of enforcement.

"As you know, striking the appropriate balance between compliance assistance, incentives, monitoring and traditional enforcement is a difficult task, made more complicated by the unique challenges facing industry today," Suarez wrote to the president.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0401060230jan06,1,4547210.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed