BUSH APPOINTS UTAH GOV. LEAVITT TO LEAD EPA



From the AP via the Salt Lake Tribune:

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has picked Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, an advocate of shifting environmental regulation to the states, to become head of the Environmental Protection Agency, a senior administration official said Monday.



Leavitt, a three-term Republican governor, would succeed Christie Whitman, a former New Jersey governor who held the post of EPA administrator for the first 2 1/2 years of the administration before resigning in May.



The EPA post has been a lightning rod for critics of the administration's environmental policies. Bush, on a Western trip to talk about timber policies and wildfires, was expected to announce Leavitt's nomination late Monday.



Leavitt, 52, has championed the idea of increasing environmental cooperation among federal, state and local officials.

Leavitt is also known for his cockamamie internet taxation drive.