New Leadership Planned for EPA

By JAMES LAUGHLIN

I expect to see changes at the Environmental Protection Agency during the presidency of George W. Bush, with his stated belief in more local control over environmental issues. His nominee to head the EPA, New Jersey Governor Christie Todd Whitman, has a mixed record on the environment, working to preserve open spaces but de-emphasizing environmental enforcement.

Whitman is no blind opponent of regulation, however, and is generally supported by Green groups. During her term in office, New Jersey has imposed environmental review regulations on new developments' water and sewer facilities, and developed drinking water regulations that are stronger than national standards.

"We know that open land is at a premium and we must preserve it. We know that clean air is invaluable and we must safeguard it. We know that clean water is priceless and we must do all we can to protect our watersheds,'' she is quoted as saying.

One reason environmentalists fear Bush has been his pro-business stance. They worry that his support of business will allow environmental concerns to fall by the wayside. Whitman has also shown a strong pro-business leaning.

Soon after taking office as governor, Whitman declared New Jersey "open for business," then fired the state's environmental prosecutor and cut funds to the Department of Environmental Protection. The number of environmental violations and fines soon dropped.

Whitman has said she made New Jersey more attractive to business without harming environmental quality.

"Our water is the cleanest it's ever been. Our air is cleaning up, and we're preserving a million acres of open space,'' she said in an interview with the Associated Press.

Whitman currently chairs the nonprofit Pew Oceans Commissions, formed last spring by the Pew Charitable Trusts to study pollution, overfishing, coastal development and the health of marine life.

If confirmed by the Senate, Whitman would be the eighth U.S. EPA Administrator since 1970. She would succeed Carol Browner, who has led the EPA during all eight years of the Clinton administration

Whitman, 54, was elected in 1993 as New Jersey's first female governor. She has a year left in her second term and is barred by the state constitution from running again. Whitman and her husband John have two children, both in college. She has a B.A. from Wheaton College, and served as president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities from 1988-1990.

A prototype of the moderate Northeastern Republican, Whitman has focused on cutting taxes while also supporting abortion rights, affirmative action and gay rights. Whitman's Sustainable Development program - also called "smart growth" - was designed to prevent suburbs from swallowing New Jersey entirely. Last year, she pushed through a referendum that provided more than $1 billion to preserve a million acres of land in New Jersey over the next decade.

Her smart growth plan has gained her predictable criticism from developers, who say restrictions on development unfairly raise real estate prices.

How her ideas on growth in densely populated New Jersey will play into questions about natural resources in the vast West are unknown. But her friendly approach to environmental regulation runs her up against Bush's history as a low-regulation, business-friendly conservative.

It will be interesting to see how she performs at EPA, but her reputation as a even-handed executive who uses enforcement as a last resort should play reasonably well with both environmentalists and those who have to live with environmental regulation.