Environmental Management: Democrats Use Leavitt Hearing to Vent on Bush's Environmental Record

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The official reason the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee met Sept. 23 was to hold a confirmation hearing on Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, a Republican nominated by President George W. Bush to succeed Christie Whitman as EPA administrator.

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Leavitt's environmental critics may have little chance of scuttling his nomination, but Democrats used the occasion to voice their frustration at an administration they accused of undoing decades of environmental progress while undermining EPA's integrity and independence.

Republicans countered that the air is cleaner now than when Bush took office and that Democrats were merely indulging in …