What will President Bush’s environmental policies mean to the American West? Observers say the Bush administration will be friendly to developers and the logging, grazing, and mining industries, and have a much lighter hand with environmental regulations. Bush has repeatedly said he will place much weight on local input into federal land management decisions. The lower Snake River dams, which enviros want dismantled to help save salmon, are now even less likely to tumble, and more old-growth trees may now be cut. Possible appointees to be Interior secretary include outgoing Montana Gov. Marc Racicot (R), Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), and Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), who lost his reelection bid. Carmi McLean, the Colorado director of Clean Water Action, had these encouraging words for enviros: “The sun will rise tomorrow. It’s not going to be the end of the world.”
