...national environmental activist groups are increasingly seen as adjuncts to the Democratic Party.

Curious use of the passive voice, Jonathan. Some might say that that impression is the result of a long and coordinated PR push on the part of the right to tar environmental concerns with that brush.

Some might also point the rather marked anti-environmental lurch of the Republican Party post-Nixon, pre-Reagan, which gave rise to a corporatist hostility to any real or perceived impediment to corporate power.

It's always amusing when someone from NRO -- fresh from years spent hurling [your calumny here] at some group, then writes a "thought piece" saying, "well, dontcha know, this group is increasingly associated with [your calumny here]." Whaddya know!

I've certainly accused environmental groups as acting like Dem party adjuncts when they do -- and certianly hope my writing is influential -- but it's a stretch to suggest these perceptions are the result of any coordinated campaign.

Among many elected Republican officials, this perception has existed for some time, and is the result of much seemingly partisan activity, especially by groups like LCV, as well as some groups' advocacy of principles that they are unwilling to apply (e.g. the selective and inconsistent approach to "fiscal conservatism" pushed by the Green Scissors folks, which I've dissected here http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-adler041902.asp), and the utter failure of many of the major environmentalist groups to make any serious effort to find actual solutions to environmental concerns that are consistent with conservative principles.

The result is an unnecessary hostility to environmental issues, and creates real obstacles to adopting environmental policies that even the staunchest conservative Republican should support. When I worked in D.C. I attended countless meetings in which I had to assure a GOP member of Congress "just because environmental group X supports this, doesn't mean it's wrong." Many environmental leaders have let their personal left-leaning ideology get in the way of achieving actual environmental results when Republicans are in power. Now, finally, some within the movement itself are paying attention.

I've added a link to the van Putten article in the post above (Hat tip: Jim Boulet
http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/05_06_05_corner-archive.asp#065717 )

The environmental movement went off the rails very early, in 1962 when Gaylord Nelson conceived of earth day as a political ploy to enhance JFK's prospects. Real environmentalism has nothing to do with Democratic party objectives, is even antithetical to many of them.

It is no wonder that Republicans resist the environmental movement, joined at the hip as it is to the Democratic party. We should not confuse the environmental movement with any real environmentalists or environmental issues. Those are non-denominational.

We would be much further ahead if not for the damage done by the Democrats to environmentalism, and much further ahead if Republicans had reacted to that mistaken partnership differently. There should be a race to the top rather than the bottom. Let them one-up one another with effective proposals rather than torpedoing one another's intitiatives for petty political gain.

Environmentalism is not dead. It is just a victim of its own success. Energy use per unit of GNP is down drastically, air pollution is down 70-95% for almost all polllutants, and water pollution is down so far that the public waters are the cleanest they have been since the 1800s. Environmentalism in the U.S. has been one of the most encouraging success stories in the history of civilization.

The public is smart enough to see this and deserves to be upset that it has not gotten more credit. No one, not even Reagan, has ever just come out and congratulated the American people. Instead there is a constant droning from the echo chambers of the rabid left that we must pass more laws, cripple the evil corporations, stop free trade, and give them more money.

I, for one, am encouraged that environmentalism seems to have morphed from a contentious issue into the DNA of the American public. You might say that we are all environmentalists now. It is simply no longer an issue that the radical left can use to flail the Republicans. As a conservative environmentalist, I am glad. As an American, it scares me that the left is getting so irrational and irresponsible.