I have friends out west who are pretty good conservative/libertarian thinkers till it comes to the environment (they're all outdoor sports types). Your comment rings true to me from my exposure. The green propaganda is so effective, to give you one example that this one fellow was convinced clear cutting was all the fault of evil Republicans and greedy corporations. The area of concern was under local Democrat control as was the state and at the time the Dems controlled congress. Yet it was all the fault of the Republicans - and he deeply believed it.
So we've never had a strong conservative tradition like California. Your friends could be from union backgrounds (most of us born in Washington were born to people who worked as union members, that's how all-encompassing union employment was in this state). The environmentalist movement really piggy-backed on the union tradition. The public schools here evangelise a radical environmentalism -- so as children you get 18 years of indoctrination on the taxpayers dime.
There are many ways that people otherwise conservative go radical green out here.
Republicans are essentially characterized as Nazis in the media -- people who want to stop you from dancing with your lovers down the highway naked -- and that has stuck too.
It's very hard to overcome. If we could simply push California, Oregon and Washington into the moderate, mildly left column, we'd be making huge gains -- gains that could help tilt national elections.