Johnson also faces the immediate task of freeing Bush's top legislative priority, a ''clear skies" bill stalled more than two years in the Republican-controlled Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. That measure would impose mandatory ceilings on three of the biggest pollutants from power plants -- sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury -- but allow individual plants to exceed their shares by buying pollution rights. Environmental activists say the legislation would delay needed cleanups.
''If confirmed, it will be my distinct privilege to serve you and our nation to continue to advance your environmental agenda while maintaining our nation's economic competitiveness," Johnson told Bush during a White House ceremony.
He praised Bush as having made ''great strides in environmental protection" in his first term. Johnson would succeed former Utah governor Mike Leavitt, who last month became head of the Health and Human Services Department.
Johnson would take the reins of an 18,000- employee agency with an $8 billion budget.
Bush wants to cut EPA spending by nearly a half-billion dollars next year, primarily from clean water programs. He wants to reduce by a third the low-interest loans to states for water quality protection and decrease spending on replacing aging water treatment facilities and pipes by 83 percent.
Bush said one of Johnson's top jobs also would be to ''lead federal efforts to ensure the safety of our drinking water supply," saying the EPA has ''an important role in the war on terror."
The Senate environment committee chairman, James Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, who once called for abolishing the EPA, said Johnson would be moving into ''one of the toughest jobs in the federal government."
Environmental activists expressed satisfaction that Bush looked at professional rather than political credentials for filling the job, but cautioned that Johnson has a reputation as a loyal foot soldier with political savvy and may not set his own agenda.
