Re: Hypocrisy ?

Re: Hypocrisy ?

In Utah, Leavitt came under criticism for opening the state's wildlands to polluting industries and opening millions of acres of wilderness to roadbuilding and development. He also backed a massive highway project that would have destroyed wetlands and fertile farmlands along the Great Salt Lake.

President Bush yesterday nominated Utah governor Michael Leavitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency replacing Christie Todd Whitman who resigned in May.

Philip E. Clapp, head of the National Environmental Trust, said, "I can't think of too many governors more hostile to government regulations than Mike Leavitt." We'll have more on this later in the show.

http://www.thetruthseekers.com/nature/article_570.shtml

“Governor Mike Leavitt’s environmental track record, which includes working behind closed doors with Interior Secretary Gale Norton to open up Utah’s wildlands to polluting industries, suggests that he will be a good fit for the Bush administration but a disappointing choice for Americans concerned with environmental protection.

http://www.thetruthseekers.com/nature/printer_570.shtml

Dianne Nielson, the director of Utah's Department of Environmental Quality, said the state's effort was key to the dramatic reduction in chlorine emissions. Environmentalists say they pushed the state to act. Legge said the company itself was the major driver, but he credited the Leavitt administration's business-friendly approach with helping his company do the right thing.

"An effort like that, as opposed to one that is adversarial, at the end of the day is more advantageous," Legge said. "During the governor's tenure, they've managed to have us reduce our air emissions by 95 percent and at the same time retain something on the order of 400 jobs."

However, the same approach didn't work on a separate pollution issue involving the company. The state negotiated with U.S. Magnesium for years to change its treatment of hazardous wastes without success; finally the EPA sued the company, seeking $902 million in fines. A similar example arose at a municipal trash-to-energy plant in Layton. State officials negotiated for six years without success to get the plant to follow trash-burning regulations. Then the state imposed fines totaling $38,000, but they never were paid; eventually the state waived them. The EPA told the state the fines were inadequate and filed charges of violations against the plant in 2000; those charges still are being contested.

Federal EPA records show that Utah inspects its major polluters far more often than the national average. But when it finds a problem, it doesn't do anything about it, Groenewold and other activists contend.

http://www.thatsracin.com/mld/krwashington/2003/08/15/news/nation/6543163.htm