Whitman Quits Unsuccessful Role at EPA
Christie Todd Whitman, head of the EPA and former governor of New Jersey, announced her departure from the Bush administration last week. As environmental spokeswoman for a White House of anti-greens, she had a lousy hand dealt to her from the beginning. However, she made a mistake in playing an environmentalist when she should better have acted as an apologist. In hindsight, her integrity would have been best served to decline the job in the first place.
Ms. Whitman acted as the administration's "wind dummy" on green issues. The term is a military one -- when paratroops are about to jump, they toss a dummy out to see how the wind behaves. The description is one Ms. Whitman learned from Secretary of State and former general Colin Powell and which she used to describe her own role at the EPA.
She advised President Bush not to reject the Kyoto protocol on global warming, he ignored the advice, and she was put out front to defend the decision. Quickly, the sagas of arsenic in drinking water, emissions flexibility for power plants and Superfund tomfoolery made her completely irrelevant.
Far better for her to have been honest about what the Republican environmental policy is -- green but not at the cost of profits. Unlike the more extreme Democrats, the Republicans acknowledge that there are trade-offs between profits and jobs on the one hand and pristine nature on the other. Where the line is drawn can be the basis of decent debate. Instead, she tried to be a moderate in a conservative administration. One wishes her well in private life. But she should be prosecuted for her role in the World Trade Center air quality scandal.