Whitman Defends Green Credentials

New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman promised a "new era of cooperation" among government, business and advocates Wednesday in protecting the environment if approved as the Bush administration's top environmental official.

"Government cannot do it alone," Whitman said in testimony prepared for a Senate hearing on her nomination to be head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Whitman said she plans to move "beyond the command-and-control model of mandates, regulations and litigation" in pressing federal efforts to protect the environment, promising a "strong partnership among citizens, government and business" to meet those goals.

Whitman's nomination was greeted warmly by both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who temporarily chairs the committee, opened the hearing by inviting her to Nevada once she assumes her job at the EPA.

Whitman, an avid hiker and skier who often has remarked of her love of the outdoors, promised to visit Nevada and other states and "perhaps even visit some trout streams."

Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., who introduced Whitman, called her nomination "a very wise selection" and noted that she comes from a state that has one of the country's best coastal management programs and also the largest number of Superfund toxic waste sites.

"She knows what works and doesn't work in the Superfund program," said Torricelli.

Whitman, a moderate Republican, was expected to get polite, but at times pointed, questions from Democrats who want assurance that a string of environmental initiatives pushed through by the Clinton administration will not be eroded or in some cases, scuttled altogether.

Whitman also was expected to try to head off questions about her involvement in New Jersey's racial profiling controversy. A poster-size copy of a 1996 picture, which first surfaced last year, of Whitman frisking a black man who had been stopped by police was recently sent to a number of senators.

While many environmentalists have reserved judgment on Whitman, they have expressed concern about what they view as a mixed environmental record during seven years as New Jersey's governor.

Whitman, 54, won praise for pursuing a program of protecting more than a million acres of open space threatened by development, and her campaign to protect New Jersey's shores.

But she also adopted a "business-friendly" view of pollution control, was a strong advocate of voluntary compliance by industry and slashed the state's environmental enforcement programs this in a state that has more Superfund toxic waste sites than any other.

When selecting Whitman, Bush said her approach to environmental protection mirrors his own.

"We share a philosophy that moves beyond the old central command-and-control mindset that believes Washington has go all the answers to environmental issues," Bush said in introducing his choice to head the agency charged with enforcing federal environmental laws.

Whitman replied that she too learned as a governor "what it's like to be on the receiving end of mandates from Washington."

For the past eight years, EPA Administrator Carol Browner has pressed programs to cut air pollution, improve water quality in lakes and streams, strengthen pesticide rules to protect children, and expand the public's access to pollution information under the federal right-to-know law.

Many of those initiatives were vigorously fought by industry and business groups, who hope and in many cases expect Whitman to be more receptive to their arguments than Browner has been.