Hansen, who represented Utah for 22 years in the U.S. House, is among a handful of people who have been mentioned as a possible replacement for departing Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

"If I was asked to be secretary, of course you'd take it," Hansen said in an interview, but he doesn't anticipate a call from the White House anytime soon.

"On the one hand, it would be extremely interesting. On the other hand, it would be a lot of work," said the 73-year-old Hansen. "You've got a ton of problems there. But I think someone's got to take the bull by the horns on a lot of those things and come up with a good, moderate, reasonable position."

Certainly, Hansen is not a front-runner. That distinction most likely belongs to Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.

While the White House has declined to fuel speculation with names of possible Norton successors, Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card told The Denver Post that the next secretary would probably be a Westerner.

Even if it is remote, the prospect of Hansen at the helm of the agency that oversees more than 500 million acres of federal land could cause some sleepless nights for the green crowd.

"Clearly we don't see eye to eye with the congressman on a variety of issues related to public-lands management," said Lawson LeGate, southwest regional director for the Sierra Club.

But Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, who took Hansen's place in Congress, said his predecessor would be "a perfect fit."

"No one could be nominated who knows the issues better," Bishop said. "As a businessman and longtime congressman, he has the skills to manage a department and work the Hill. And he has an appreciation for the land."

Hansen has been mentioned in several articles speculating about possible Interior Department successors to Norton.

Former Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., told The Denver Post that Hansen would be a logical pick but could spark a tough confirmation fight.

Hansen said McInnis, who also has been rumored as a possible candidate, only said that because he doesn't want to do it.

"My crystal ball needs a lot of cleaning," LeGate said. "[But] I'd be surprised if [Hansen] was at the top of the list."

Kempthorne is the name most commonly mentioned by those following the issue.

Others in the mix include Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and former Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who was endorsed in a letter to the president Tuesday by Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard.

Hansen spent two decades on the House Resources Committee, which handles Interior Department issues, retiring as chairman of the committee. In that time, he fought bitterly against designating millions of acres of wilderness in Utah and decried the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument designation in the state.

He still mocks an environmental group's proposal to drain Lake Powell as a pinnacle of stupidity.

As Bishop points out, Hansen was also the last Utah congressman to get wilderness created in the state before Bishop got a new area designated last year to block nuclear-waste storage in the state - an idea hatched by Hansen.

A former House Ethics Committee chairman, Hansen would potentially be an asset for a department under a shadow because of dealings with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Hansen is in the last month of his tenure on the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, which recommended closing or scaling back scores of military bases and is now drafting a plan to simplify the next round of closures, should one be ordered by Congress.

He has a consulting and lobbying business with his son but said he would have to "cut the ties" in the unlikely event the Interior post is offered.

Scott Groene, executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which sparred for years with Hansen over public-land protection, said no matter whom the Bush administration picks "it will make all the difference of rotating bald tires."

He said the new secretary will continue the administration's policy of rolling back conservation policies.

"This administration has divided the West with its push for energy development over all other uses, and you'd hope they could make a selection to heal that rift," Groene said. "Many of the names tossed around, such as Jim's, would do nothing to heal that rift."

gehrke@sltrib.com