Leavitt to Washington: He accepts Bush's request to head EPA

Out of the state frying pan, into the federal fire.

Gov. Mike Leavitt's decision Monday to accept President Bush's nomination as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency means Utah's 11-year governor turns aside sometimes unpleasant state issues — such as tuition tax credits — for bitter battles on the nation's environment.

It also means Utah gets its first woman governor: Lt. Gov. Olene Walker.

Upon Leavitt's formal resignation, which could take weeks or months as he waits to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Walker, 72, will take over for the final months of the Leavitt/Walker third four-year term, which ends early January 2005.

In a Monday night press conference with Leavitt in the governor's office, Walker said she may "have a few things of my own" to emphasize as governor "but will continue the bold agenda" that she and Leavitt have put forward in the past decade.

Bush tapped Leavitt Monday afternoon, the president saying in a Denver press conference that Leavitt was the right man for the job: "A trusted friend, a capable executive and a man who understands the obligations of environmental stewardship. In Utah and beyond, he has gained wide respect for handling environmental issues in a spirit of openness and bipartisanship."

Leavitt told Bush — who flew into Denver from a monthlong vacation at his Crawford, Texas, ranch — that he's leaving Utah a better place than when he found it as governor.

"The air is cleaner, the water is more pure, the land better cared for, the people more safe." If the Senate confirms him, Leavitt said, he would leave the EPA and the nation's environment "better than I found it."

If Leavitt is confirmed by the Senate, he'd join a group of only four other Utahns who have served in a presidential Cabinet. An additional handful of Utahns, however, have served as top aides to previous presidents.

Back in Utah meeting with the press, Leavitt said after initial feelers from White House aides in May he didn't hear anything for 30 days and thought he was out of the running. But he met secretly with Bush in the Oval Office the first week in July to talk some more. Again, he didn't hear anything for another 30 days and so started talking with his family about running for governor next year. But then things moved quickly, and Leavitt said yes when Bush asked him last week to serve.