STANLEY K. HATHAWAY is no household name today, except in Wyoming where he was governor from 1966 to 1974. But give the man a successful confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate and a few months as Secretary of Interior and his recognition level should rank alongside that of other cabinet greats, like Agriculture's Earl Butz and the recently-departed Attorney General William Saxbe.

After making several "middle-of-the-road" or "liberal" cabinet appointments. President Ford has moved to appease the uneasy conservative wing of his party by installing Hathaway as sucessor to Commerce Department-bound Rogers C.B. Morton. For good reason environmentalists have attacked the Hathaway nomination and plan to battle it in the Senate, where Hathaway's confirmation hearings opened Monday. Still, if the Senate acts customarily, Hathaway will gain easy approval.

One need not look far to see why the prospect of Stanley Hathaway as Interior Secretary frightens those who care about this country's environment. As governor, Hathaway consistently opposed the philosophy and programs of the Department of Interior. He supported extending an airport runway into Grand Teton National Park.

He tried without success to weaken Wyoming's proposed air pollution law with variances he believed necessary to the "economic and social development of the state." He suggested that oil and gas wells should not be covered by a law prohibiting discharge of waste into navigable streams. He supported industrial exploitation of Wyoming's energy resources, favoring immediate oil shale development and helping to triple the amount of state land leased for coal mining.

No one but the Ford Administration expects Hathaway to protect America's interior adequately, especially as "Project Independence" pressure grows for accelerated mining of coal and oil shale. Unfortunately, objections of environmentalists in Washington will not shake Senate reluctance to reject a Cabinet nomination. Only extensive public pressure can now spare the country the critical environmental damage that Stanley Hathaway would permit as Secretary of the Interior.