Leavitt, sworn in last year as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency after serving nearly three terms as Utah's governor, told The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board Thursday that the indicators - primarily a shift in poll numbers following the Republican National Convention - are now pointing to the president's re-election in November.
If that occurs, Leavitt claims his agency is poised to make big strides - erasing at least some of the criticisms of Bush's first-term environmental policies.
"We're talking about preventing pollution, as opposed to just cleaning it up," said Leavitt. "I think what we'll see is the biggest decrease in air pollution in history. I think the stage is set for that."
Leavitt says he intends to sign the Clean Air Interstate Rule, aimed at reducing coal-fired power plant emissions by up to 70 percent through the "cap and trade" methods that EPA used to successfully reduce acid rain levels in the last decade.
At $50 billion, "this is the most expensive rule ever promulgated by the EPA," Leavitt said. "Instead of traditional command-and-control, we can use a market approach to get that 70 percent decrease."
Leavitt is similarly upbeat about the administration's plan to reduce mercury levels nationwide, leaning heavily on developing technologies and turning mercury into a global issue. Leavitt says more than half of all mercury-related pollution in this country comes from overseas.
But the Sierra Club earlier this year called the EPA's proposed mercury controls weak compared wit those in states such as Florida, saying "the Bush administration has once again put the interests of corporate polluters ahead of America's public health."
In keeping with the administration's broader theme on the topic, Leavitt says the environment and marketplace are inextricably connected.
"We're competing in a world where the competition is global," he said. "And many of our competitors don't hold the same environmental standards we do. . . . The question isn't whether we make environmental progress. It's how we can make environmental progress and have economic prosperity."
jbaird@sltrib.com
