Tag: christie todd whitman

Bush Chooses New Epa Administrator

President Bush has chosen Utah Governor Mike Leavitt as the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Some environmentalists say this nomination indicates that the Bush administration is no longer concerned about placating conservationists. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports:

Transcript

President Bush has chosen Utah Governor Mike Leavitt as the new head of the
Environmental
Protection Agency. Some environmentalists say this nomination indicates that the Bush
administration is no longer concerned about placating conservationists. The Great
Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports:


If Leavitt is confirmed by the Senate, he will replace Christie Todd Whitman, who
resigned in
May.


Business leaders and Republicans describe Leavitt as a moderate and a consensus
builder.
Environmental groups, though, say Utah’s governor has a history of allowing
corporations to
pollute the state’s forests and waterways.


Scott Groene is the staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.


“He’s a smart man and he’ll be very careful not to blunder by telling the public
what he’s doing if
he’s actually rolling back environmental protections. That’s certainly what we’ve
seen here in
Utah, is that he’ll take some fairly extreme actions but then he’ll manage to claim
the middle
ground with his rhetoric.”


Leavitt says he wants to give states a larger role in environmental regulation. His
confirmation
hearings will be scheduled when the Senate returns to Washington in September.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Celeste Headlee.

Report Finds White House Blocked Asbestos Warning

A recent newspaper report says that the White House stopped the EPA from issuing a warning about widespread asbestos-contaminated insulation last spring. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports:

Transcript

A recent newspaper report says that the White House stopped the
EPA from issuing a warning about widespread asbestos-contaminated
insulation last spring. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton
reports:


Zonolite insulation was produced in this country from the 1940’s through
the 1990’s, and almost all of it was made from ore that came from one mine
in Libby, Montana. Thousands of miners were killed or sickened because
the ore was contaminated with an extremely lethal asbestos fiber.


But it was only last year that the EPA decided to issue a public health
emergency warning to residents and workers who could come in contact with
Zonolite insulation in homes where it had been installed.


A St. Louis Post Dispatch investigation revealed that the White House Office of
Management and Budget intervened, and the EPA never issued the warning.
The Post Dispatch reports that EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman was
outraged by the decision.


Hundreds of thousands of homes in Michigan and Illinois probably have
Zonolite insulation. The insulation is often strewn loose in attics.
It’s silvery-brown and comes in feather-light pieces ranging from the size
of a pea to the size of a nickel.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tracy Samilton.