U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton made her first trip outside Washington, D.C., last weekend, promising an audience of 600 jubilant Republicans in Oregon that the dark days of the Clinton administration were over. She repeated what has become one of her favorite lines, “I respectfully disagree with those who say that to be good stewards of our national treasures, we must be willing to sacrifice jobs.” (Um, exactly who has argued otherwise in recent years?) The Bush administration’s open hostility toward the environment has been a boon for the green group Republicans for Environmental Protection, whose membership has doubled to 30,000 since January. Indeed, membership in many environmental groups is expected to grow during the Bush years. “But it’s going to grow out around a fear, rather than a hope,” says Wilderness Society President Bill Meadows.
