Interior moves Will Kempthorne be a better steward than Norton?

Gale Norton will soon step down as U.S. secretary of the interior, a post that she's used largely to help industry. She won't be missed by Americans who believe that the secretary's primary responsibility should be to protect national parks, wilderness areas, rangelands, endangered species and federal waters.

It's telling that Norton has said she regrets not achieving one of her major goals: opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

Unfortunately, she has been able to oversee an expansion of oil, gas and coal industry operations on public lands in the West.

And, under her leadership, the agency has pushed to open part of the Gulf of Mexico 100 miles south of Pensacola to drilling.

That proposal should be a topic of discussion when the man nominated to replace Norton -- Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne -- faces confirmation hearings before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Florida Republican Mel Martinez, a committee member, should make sure that Kempthorne's position on offshore drilling is clear. If Kempthorne intends to continue Norton's effort in the Gulf, Martinez should join with Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida and vow to block the confirmation.

Desite her faults, Norton did earn praise from at least one environmental group. The Nature Conservancy saluted her encouragement of "cooperative conservation," a policy by which the federal government and private organizations offered landowners financial incentives to preserve land.

We hope that Norton's successor continues those conservation efforts but adds a quality that she has conspicuously lacked: the desire to be a good steward of America's public lands and offshore waters.

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