The first question senators should ask Michael Leavitt, the Utah governor President Bush has nominated to head the Environmental Protection Agency, is why he would want to head a department that has been disregarded and disparaged by an administration that is viewed as hostile to environmental concerns. The prior administrator, also a Republican governor, lasted two-and-a-half embattled years. The agency is currently dogged by criticism that it withheld critical information on pollution and global warming from senators, cut references to climate change from a state-of-the-environment report and overstated the safety of the nation’s water supply. And, that’s only in the last few months.

Environmentalists have already criticized the choice of Gov. Leavitt, whose surprise nomination was announced Monday by President Bush after he toured an Arizona resort ravaged by this summer’s wild fires. Chief among their concerns was that Gov. Leavitt opened millions of acres of public land to mining, oil and gas drilling and road-building and his efforts to build a new highway through wetlands, an attempt thwarted by a U.S. appeals court. While national environmental groups may get worked up about roadless areas, wilderness preservation, mineral and grazing rights and other topics of concern in the West, where Leavitt is the longest-serving governor, these are not typically the topics that worry Mainers.

The questions that Maine’s senators will want to ask during Gov. Leavitt’s confirmation process have more to do with repairing EPA’s tarnished image and ensuring that it protects the health of Maine people. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins should want to know whether Gov. Leavitt will seek the release of information showing a proposal from Sen. Thomas Carper to reduce power plant emissions would do so more quickly and effectively than President Bush’s “Clear Skies” initiative. The senators should ask whether the EPA under Gov. Leavitt’s leadership will complete an evaluation of climate change legislation sponsored by Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman, and co-sponsored by Sen. Snowe, that is tougher on carbon dioxide emissions than the administration’s proposal. Will extensive references to global warming that were deleted from the agency’s Draft Report from the Environment be put back into the document? How will the EPA reassess the safety of drinking water in light of a recent inspector general’s report that the agency overstated the purity of community water supplies by as much as 15 percent.

The senators should also seek more information from Gov. Leavitt about his support for turning more enforcement authority over to the states. Namely, how can cash-strapped states be counted on to enforce environmental regulations where there are other pressing needs. How can states be asked to pick up a larger share of the tab for cleaning up Superfund sites when they are shortchanging schools and freezing salaries. How will the interests of states, like Maine, that have tougher regulations than federal law in many realms be balanced against businesses who complain such state rules are unfair.

Gov. Leavitt has won praise for his work on sprawl and improving the air quality at western national parks, including the Grand Canyon. “There is no progress polarizing at the extremes, but there is great progress, there’s great environmental progress, when we collaborate in the productive middle,” Leavitt says of his philosophy.

The challenge for Maine’s senators is to find out just where that productive middle lies.