Idaho lawyer takes post with EPA

BOISE – L. Michael Bogert, former top lawyer for Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, has been named the regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, overseeing its operations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska.

Bogert, 47, replaces acting Region 10 Administrator Ron Kreizenbeck, a veteran of more than 30 years with the agency, who has served in the post since July 2004. Kreizenbeck will become deputy regional administrator.

“I am looking forward to this exciting and challenging opportunity to advance the agency’s mission of protecting human health and the environment for the benefit of all the citizens of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska,” Bogert said in a statement.

But when Bogert was Kempthorne’s chief legal adviser for five years, his boss had harsh words for the EPA. At a November 2001 hearing in Wallace, Kempthorne called the EPA “a non-responsive bureaucracy” because of concerns about cleanup plans for the Coeur d’Alene Basin. The governor told a cheering audience, “I’ve become so frustrated that I’m on the verge of asking EPA to leave the state of Idaho. … We’ve had it.”

Bogert said Thursday that things have changed since then. “He made that statement, and then we immediately rolled up our sleeves,” he said. Since then, Kempthorne has signed on to a 30-year “Record of Decision” on the cleanup, and the Idaho Legislature has approved a unique cleanup approach that involves all parties including the state, Coeur d’Alene Tribe and local governments through a basin commission.

The result is “far beyond where we were back in the early days when he made that memorable quote up in Wallace,” Bogert said.

Idaho politicians critical of the basin cleanup sparked a National Academy of Sciences review of the entire cleanup effort, but that review recently concluded that the agency’s efforts were on track and should have gone even further.

Bogert was Kempthorne’s top legal adviser on an array of major issues while he served in the administration, including tribal gambling, salmon recovery and sensitive water issues surrounding the Snake River Basin Adjudication.

Bogert said his involvement in those issues gives him “a great running start in this position on the matters that are of great importance to Idaho. I put the basin at the top of the list,” he added, “but we’re going to work through that, so stay tuned.”

Bogert said he was first approached about the job by Idaho’s senior U.S. senator, Larry Craig. The states in the region generally trade off on which gets to recommend the nominee, and it was Idaho’s turn.

“As a native Idahoan and former counsel to Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, Michael Bogert is intimately familiar with the natural resource opportunities and challenges of the Western states which constitute Region 10,” Idaho’s congressional delegation wrote in a joint letter to the White House recommending Bogert for the job. “He is sensitive to the need to protect the environmental treasures of the West, while balancing the real-life considerations of the citizens of this region and their livelihoods.”

Kempthorne applauded the choice Thursday. “Michael has a common-sense approach and an understanding of law and regulations that will make him very effective as the EPA’s regional administrator in the Northwest,” the governor said. “He is a pragmatist that gets results and an excellent choice by the Bush Administration for this position.”

Bogert left the governor’s office briefly in 2002 to run for Idaho attorney general, and finished third in a four-way GOP primary, losing to Lawrence Wasden, who went on to win the general election.

He later went into private practice with the Perkins Coie law firm in Boise, but he continued to work on some issues for Kempthorne.

Before joining the Kempthorne administration in 1999, Bogert served as assistant general counsel to the National Rifle Association in Washington, D.C., and chief deputy legal affairs secretary to then-California Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican.

Bogert holds a law degree from the University of Idaho and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Santa Clara. He also studied environmental law at George Washington University. He and wife, Terri, have two children, Jack, 5, and Kate, 8.

He’ll be sworn in on Monday in Seattle.