Low CEQ IQ

U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman told the New York Times Magazine that U.S. President Bush in January hadn't heard of the White House Office on Environmental Quality, the executive branch office responsible for enforcing the National Environmental Policy Act and coordinating the environmental policies of federal agencies. Whitman said that when Bush offered her the EPA job, he told her that she alone would be setting the administration's environmental policies. Whitman said, ''I asked him what the role for the Council on Environmental Quality would be, and he said: 'I don't even know what that is. I want you to be the environmental person.''' No word on whether Bush has since heard of the CEQ.