Washington ? President Bush chose Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt on Monday to head the Environmental Protection Agency, turning to another Republican governor to be his voice on an issue where his standing with voters is weak.

Leavitt, a three-term governor who favors giving states a bigger role in environmental regulation, would succeed Christie Whitman, a former New Jersey governor who resigned in May.

“Mike Leavitt will come to the EPA with a strong environmental record, a strong desire to improve what has taken place in the last three decades,” Bush said in Denver after spending a day promoting his plan for thinning forests to prevent wildfires.

The EPA post has been a lightning rod for critics of the administration’s environmental policies. Whitman resigned after 2 1/2 years in which she sometimes butted heads with administration officials who saw energy development as a bigger priority.

Bush said Leavitt “understands the importance of clear standards in every environmental policy.”

“He respects the ability of state and local government to meet those standards, he rejects the old ways of command and control from above,” the president said.

If confirmed by the Senate, Leavitt said he would seek consensus when tackling environmental issues that often ignite passions and strong disagreement in Washington.

“There is no progress polarizing at the extremes but great progress when we collaborate in the middle,” he said, promising to improve the nation’s air quality. “I’ll leave it a better place than I found it. … I’ll give it my all.”

Leavitt said he shared Bush’s enthusiasm for technological approaches for improving the environment but also recognized that with environmental matters there is often “an economic imperative that we’re dealing with in the global economy and that’s to do it less expensively.”

Leavitt, 52, has championed the idea of increasing environmental cooperation among federal, state and local officials.

The environmental issues he has focused on have mostly concerned public lands.

Over the objections of environmentalists, he advocated a major highway extension through wetlands and wildlife habitat near the Great Salt Lake. The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals halted the project, saying the Army Corps of Engineers did not pay enough attention to wildlife or look at alternatives before approving it.