As predictably as the sun rises in the East, the Sierra Club last week endorsed the liberal candidate running for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire this year: Jeanne Shaheen.

Sen. John Sununu's environmental positions are far too sensible to earn him the extremist Sierra Club's endorsement.

For example, Sen. Sununu wrote the New England Wilderness Act of 2006, which protects 35,000 acres of the White Mountains National Forest. But that's not good enough for the Sierra Club, which last year sued to halt timber harvests in a small portion (about 1,200 acres) of the forest.

Sununu agrees with the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, the Audubon Society, the Appalachian Mountain Club and the state of New Hampshire that some limited timber harvesting is a part of responsible forest management.

The state Democratic Party criticized Sununu for allegedly voting "against reducing greenhouse gasses." But what Sununu voted against were feel-good proposals such as a proclamation that there is a "scientific consensus" on global warming and that the United States should attempt to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions by entering into binding international agreements, such as the disastrous Kyoto Protocol, rather than through less costly and more sensible means.

Sununu has also been knocked for opposing the costly Climate Stewardship Act of 2003, another Kyoto-like proposal that the Energy Information Agency estimated would cost the American economy $507 billion over 22 years.

Don't let this endorsement fool you. Sen. Sununu's opponents casually label him anti-environment merely because he thinks, as many Granite Staters do, that the benefits of any environmental regulation ought to clearly outweigh the costs. That's not anti-green, that's pro-common sense. Granite Staters ought to be alarmed that Jeanne Shaheen does not share that sentiment.