On Thursday, oil prices dropped to $89 a barrel from a July high of $147 and Idaho U.S. Rep. Bill Sali blamed his Democratic opponent, Walt Minnick for high gas prices .

Sali’s timing wasn’t perfect and his connection is strained. But his linking of Minnick to an environmental group that has long opposed drilling across western public lands and led the fight to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is at least as strong as Minnick’s efforts to tie Sali’s support for unlimited drilling to his funding from oil companies.

Minnick, a long time CEO for a timber products company and a high-end yard and garden retail business, was on the governing board of the Wilderness Society , one of the nation’s leading environmental groups from 1990 to 1996 and from 1997 to 2007.

The organization has fought to prevent domestic drilling on more than 30 million acres of land, which Sali said holds 24.6 billion barrels of oil in 11 states. Like most environmental groups the Wilderness Society opposed off-shore drilling and of course drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which has been the symbolic center of the the nation’s long time debate over drilling.

During the campaign, Minnick has expressed support for drilling off-shore and specifically in the National Petroleum Preserve in Alaska. The Wilderness Society filed lawsuits to stop drilling there, Sali said.

“For 16 years Walt Minnick was an unashamed radical environmentalist who was opposed to domestic and offshore oil drilling,” Sali said. Then he decided to run for Congress in a district that supports drilling. He has been speaking out of both sides of his mouth, misrepresenting his record of causing serious damage to our economy and our country.”

Sali’s right in saying that the Wilderness Society has long fought drilling in many areas and Minnick, as a governing council member, shares responsibility for its advocacy. But for years there was a bipartisan consensus against offshore drilling near the coasts of places like Florida and California.

President George Bush, the current President’s father, signed a moratorium on offshore drilling in the early 90s that his son rescinded this year. Congress allowed the ban on off-shore drilling to expire last month.

Republicans and Democrats have joined together to oppose drilling sensitive places in the West including around Yellowstone and Glacier national parks. Minnick shares opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with Republican Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain.

So Minnick’s recent expressions of support for drilling may not represent long held views as Sali suggests.

Sali told the Idaho Statesman he was confident that drilling could be done while protecting the environment. He supports drilling he said, on any public land nationwide.

Sali calls Minnick a “radical environmentalist.” not only for his ties to the Wilderness Society but also for his board membership of the Idaho Conservation League . Both groups, he said, support locking up public land from recreationists, cutting back logging, mining and even livestock grazing.

Here Sali’s rhetoric runs into problem. Republican Sen. Mike Crapo has worked closely with both groups to craft a collaborative bill to protect wilderness and ranching in the Owyhee Canyonlands. His Republican colleague in the House, Mike Simpson has done the same to write his Boulder-White Clouds wilderness bill.

Last month, Republican Lieutenant Gov. Jim Risch praised the Idaho Conservation League’s role in reaching an agreement on his national forest roadless protection plan.

“Senator Crapo has worked very well with both the Wilderness Society in Idaho and the Idaho Conservation League on a number of collaborative projects,” said Crapo’s press secretary Lindsay Nothern Thursday. “Many of those projects have been quite successful including the Owyhee Initiative.”

Minnick told the Idaho Statesman editorial board he didn’t support everything the Wilderness Society did during his tenure. But he didn’t walk away from responsibility for its actions.

“Walt was often a dissenting voice on the council,” said Craig Gehrke, who heads the Wilderness Society’s Boise office. “He was the leading advocate for us to go out and work with local people in the community like the Owyhee Initiative.”

Sali has yet to express support for either Crapo’s Owyhee bill or Simpson’s Boulder-White Clouds bill.

Click here to listen to our full editorial board interviews with Sali and Minnick.