Enron, Arthur Andersen and WorldCom to the contrary, numbers don't lie: the environmental market posted solid gains in 2001. ENR's Top 200 Environmental Firms reported $32.8 billion in revenue for the year, a 13% gain over the previous year. For the first time ever, the annual number topped $30 billion, despite the twin anchors of recession and a costly war on terror instigated by the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
Conventional wisdom says the environmental market lags the general economy, that a Bush administration would cast a pall on remediation spending and that the cost of fighting a war would divert military funds earmarked for base cleanup. All of these things could come to pass, but none has happened yet.