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Despite all this action, some environmentalists found the Watt endorsement and Ruckelshaus' ties to industry disturbing. Since 1976 he has been a senior vice president of Weyerhaeuser Co., the huge Tacoma, Wash., forest-products firm that was named one of the nation's "Filthy Five" companies by Environmental Action, an environmental lobbying group. But others praised the nomination, giving Ruckelshaus high marks for his stewardship of the fledgling EPA from 1970 to 1973, when he fought consistently with the major automakers over air-pollution controls, banned a number of controversial herbicides and forced steelmakers and electric utilities to install expensive pollution-control equipment. "He set very high standards," said Louise Dunlap of the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Policy Center.
After cheering up EPA employees last week, Ruckelshaus made courtesy calls on Capitol Hill, even as six congressional panels continued their probes into wrongdoing at the agency. Although he is expected to win Senate confirmation easily, congressional critics remain poised to pounce at the first sign of Administration retreat from environmental protection. "Whatever stars they bring in," said Georgia Democrat Elliott Levitas, chairman of a House subcommittee investigating the EPA, "it won't matter if they're working the same sad script."