EPA Nominee's Balancing Act Has Its Critics | L A Times

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August 17, 2003

EPA Nominee's Balancing Act Has Its Critics
-Utah Gov. Leavitt has had success achieving consensus on land-use issues, but harbors a pro-development bias, environmentalists say.

By Elizabeth Shogren, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- When President Bush nominated Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency, he praised Leavitt's skills as a consensus builder.

He particularly credited Leavitt for corralling 13 governors and 13 Indian tribal leaders, as well as environmental activists and industry leaders, behind one plan to clear the haze obscuring scenic views across the West. On this issue, environmentalists and utility executives alike give Leavitt high marks.

The secret to his success, Leavitt says, is his philosophy of "enlibra," a word he coined from Latin to mean "move toward balance."

But Leavitt, 52, has not always achieved the balance that produced the regional clean-air agreement. Environmental groups that have struggled to block oil drilling in Utah's spectacular red-rock canyon land, to prevent a massive highway through prime wetlands and to clean up vast quantities of toxic wastes tell a different story.

Leavitt, they say, approached these controversies with a clear bias toward development and resource extraction. And he often sought resolutions in closed-door meetings.

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