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Finally, for everybody who's out there on the edge hanging on to the hope that some day, some way, the former Allen administration would have its say regarding the environment, that day has come.

On behalf of George Allenophiles everywhere, thak you Becky Norton Dunlop for Clearing the Air: How the People of Virginia Improved the Stat'e Air and Water Despite the EPA.

I'm not even going to pretend to have read this tell-all memoir of the Allen years from an insider's point of view. Dunlop served as Secretary of Natural Resources from1994-98 while Allen was governor of the Commonwealth.

Allen's now a member of the U.S. Senate and Dunlop is a senior fellow of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution and vice president of the Heritage Foundation. de Tocqueville and the Northumberland Echo co-published the book.

It's not that I have anything against Dunlop, de Tocqueville or the environment. And I'm no big fan of intrusive federal government or the EPA. It's Allen that puts me on edge.

The book may have redeeming qualities, however. No book is bad. Some are just better than others.

This one has some 11 chapters exploring Allen's revolutin; the California car; testing cars; EPA's Gosplan; reinventing Virginia's EPA; Smithfield; natural resourcefulness; when the polluter is government; the cost and hypocrisy of 0.00000004 less smog; the Superfund, asbestos ad other confusions; the Chesapeak Bay and Virginia' rivers, and clearing the air, plus acknowledgments.

I'm sure it would tell me everything I ever wanted to know about these issues in the context of the Republican agenda, whatever that is.

I did notice that references to Allen appear on 90 of some 235 pages. Go Fiqure.

I also noticed that the section on "natural resourcefulness" makes pleasant reference to our area in general and watermen in particular: "Bill Pruitt, Commissioner of VMRC, and Jack Travelstead, the top fisheries scientist, and I had many discussions with watermen who were concered about this change," writes Dunlop regarding changes in the striped bass fishery. "I visited with watermen who were concerned about this change," she continued. "I visited with watermen where they worked and liver; Tangier Island, the Eastern SHore, in Mathews, Gloucester, Middlesex, Lancaster, and Nothumberland counties... Virginia's watermen work to provide for us who have neither time, nor the fishing vessels nor the stamina to catch our own fish."

They certainly don't do it for the money.

The more I thumb through it, the more I think I might just pt it in the "to read" pile.

After all, I share a belief with Dunlop, Allen, and President George W. Bush that government, citizens and businesses can work together to improve the environment.

As House Majority Leader Dick Armey puts it so neatly on the book's back cover, "Becky Dunlop showed in Virginia that you can be pro-market and pro-environment at the same time. In fact, the two go together. This book is a must read for conservatives - and for all real friends of the environment."

Out of respect for Dunlop, who, despite Allen, made a sincere and somewhat successful effort to improve my quality of life, I will read it.

Clearing The Air may not make the New York Times best-seller list, or even my top books for 2001, but it at least deserves some attention.

First, however, I'm going through it with a permanent marker and striking all references to ALlen. And while I'm at it, I'll cross out all the identifiable political propaganda, grandstanding and opposition slamming.

That's only fair... sor t of clearing the air.