Whitman brings business-friendly approach to EPA
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Source: Suntimes.com
Related Story --> Environmental Defense endorses new EPA head Christine Todd Whitman
(this is an excerpt from full article found at above url)
Whitman brings business-friendly approach to EPA
BY MICHAEL GRUNWALD AND ERIC PIANIN
WASHINGTON--Gov. Christie Whitman cut New Jersey's environmental
protection budget by about 30 percent.
She relaxed enforcement of pollution regulations, promoting voluntary compliance
and cooperation instead of corporate fines.
She abolished her state's environmental prosecutor's office and replaced its public
advocate with a business ombudsman.
Whitman also fought against ocean dumping and launched a popular initiative to
preserve 1 million acres of open space in the nation's most densely populated state.
But New Jersey business officials who complained for years about onerous
environmental regulations say that in general, Whitman kept the pledge she made at
her inauguration to make the state "open for business."
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Friday, President-elect George W. Bush tapped Whitman to bring her
business-friendly approach to the Environmental Protection Agency, which has
expanded its regulatory reach during the Clinton administration.
At the announcement, they both hinted that a more cooperative regulatory
atmosphere may be coming to the agency, with Bush dismissing "the central
command-and-control mind-set" and Whitman observing that "I know what it's like
to be on the receiving end of mandates from Washington."
The environment was not a central issue in the campaign, but it could be one of the
starkest areas where the Bush-Cheney administration will differ from Clinton-Gore.
The buzz before Whitman's appointment focused on her support for abortion rights,
but with most of the nation's major environmental laws up for renewal, her
confirmation hearings are likely to focus primarily on her regulatory record.
The key word at Friday's announcement in Austin was "balance," with Bush and
Whitman promising to consider the importance of economic growth as well as
environmental protection. Whitman acknowledged the challenges ahead.
"I have never underestimated the importance of environmental protection, nor have I
overestimated the ease of protecting it," said Whitman, 54, a longtime Bush political
ally, who gave him a puppy as a Christmas gift.
In New Jersey--a heavily industrialized state with the nation's highest concentration
of Superfund sites--the business community praised Whitman's laissez-faire
approach.
Whitman's Environmental Protection Department--led by a local politician with no
college degree who had run his own equipment supply company--tried to persuade
polluters to mend their ways voluntarily. It collected far fewer fines and filed far
fewer lawsuits, relying heavily on the polluters themselves to monitor their own
emissions, even approving a "grace period" for businesses caught out of compliance.
Whitman also streamlined the state permitting process for developers, eliminated
permits for minor projects, and removed more than 1,000 chemicals from the state's
right-to-know list. And she signed an executive order rolling back most state
regulations that were stricter than their federal counterparts.
These reforms, deep tax cuts and the resurgence of the national economy, helped
New Jersey produce more than 400,000 new jobs during her administration.
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"She hasn't buckled under the pressure from environmentalists who go door-to-door
selling eco-fear," said Chris Biddle, vice president for communications of the New
Jersey Business and Industry Association. "She's stopped treating businesses like
felons, and she's gotten rid of a lot of those hoops and hurdles that made it so
difficult to do business here."
Often, though, Whitman's pro-business approach to the environment has run afoul of
green groups, and at times her Environmental Protection Department has clashed
directly with President Clinton's EPA over her delay of new standards for auto
emission inspections, a proposed highway expansion, a water-monitoring program
and an effort to relax water-quality rules that she announced on a canoe trip.
Most recently, the EPA and the state inspector general criticized a sweetheart deal
New Jersey cut for an influential Republican cranberry grower who had committed
wetlands violations.
"Whitman's appointment is a Christmas gift to America's polluters," said Jeff Tittle,
head of the Sierra Club's New Jersey chapter. "People think she's a moderate
because she's pro-choice. But she's taken a hard-right approach on the issues she'll
see at EPA."
The national leaders of the Sierra Club and other environmental groups have taken a
more conciliatory stance toward Whitman. This is partly because they will have to
work with her, partly because they believe she is much more eco-friendly than other
potential appointees by Bush, who was not known as an ardent environmentalist as
governor of Texas.
The Whitman administration has been notably aggressive about ocean
protection--beach closings are now almost unheard of in New Jersey--and has led
the nation in the recycling of dredge spoil. Whitman also has supported the EPA's
lawsuit to force Midwestern factories to meet higher air-quality standards and its
plan to force General Electric to dredge the contaminated Hudson River. She has
expressed concern about global warming.
"We're generally optimistic," said Alyssondra Campaigne, legislative director of the
Natural Resources Defense Council. "Her record is mixed. It's not a perfect record,
but it's one that leaves us hopeful we can work with her."
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