EPA Chief Calls on Congress to Pass Clear Skies

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, December 2, 2003 (ENS) - New Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Mike Leavitt today outlined his goals and management vision for the agency, promising to start his tenure by launching a plan to create "the most productive period of air quality improvement in American history." Leavitt said the Bush administration's Clear Skies proposal is critical to this plan and urged Congress to pass the controversial air pollution legislation.

"We need it to pass," Leavitt said. "Enacting Clear Skies is by far the best route to better air quality in the most comprehensive manner."

In his first major address since joining the EPA last month, Leavitt laid out his support for "national market based solutions" such as the cap and trade system used in the Clear Skies plan, which would reduce power plant emissions of mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.

"The cap and trade approach shows us again and again that people do more and they do it faster when they have an incentive to do what is in the public's interest," Leavitt said.

But there is some doubt that Clear Skies would be more effective than existing law and critics are wary of the Bush administration's faith in relaxing regulations.

Former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt is the 10th administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (Photo courtesy Office of the Governor)

Leavitt acknowledged that the Clean Air Act has been effective over the past 30 years, but said the command and control nature of the law - and other environmental regulations - has largely run its course.

Environmental progress has slowed, Leavitt explained, because additional benefits from many regulations have become too costly to justify.

The need for a new approach to environmental regulation at the EPA permeated Leavitt's speech and he called on the agency to consider the impact of its decisions.

"Actions of the Environmental Protection Agency affect the lives of every person on the planet, often in multiple ways," he said. "Beyond our stated mission, our work has significant impact on economic policy, social policy, energy policy, international policy, and homeland security, which is why so many issues are elevated to broader discussions."

The agency must recognize that the problems and challenges it faces have economic consequences and are "extraordinarily complex and politically contentious," Leavitt said.

Leavitt said he would be a strong advocate for EPA positions within the interagency process - something environmentalists say Bush administration officials have rarely done.

He said the agency under his leadership will replace conflict with "common sense and collaboration" and called on the EPA to work more closely with local and state leaders.

Leavitt says the EPA's will act to reduce diesel emissions from nonroad engines. (Photo courtesy greenecon.org)

"There was nothing in the talk today that suggested a new approach," said Howard Fox, senior attorney with Earthjustice, a non profit environmental law firm. "Actions are going to speak much louder than words."

Leavitt did promise some general actions that could please critics - he said his 500 day air quality plan includes the commitment to implement new EPA standards for ozone, particulate matter and mercury as well as a pledge to move forward with a proposed rule that will reduce harmful emissions from nonroad diesel engines.

Commenting on why he accepted President George W. Bush's offer to run the EPA, Leavitt said a key reason was the "the commitment I feel from the President himself to create a faster tempo of improvement using improved technology, better partnerships and markets.

"We will continue to protect and safeguard," Leavitt told EPA employees. "We will do it faster, better and more collaboratively than has ever been done before. We will be the builders of a 21st century network and the keepers of a 30 year ethic."