|Marcia Bystryn is president of the New York League of Conservation Voters.
If the 2008 legislative session that ended last month is a good indicator, things may be looking up for New York [1]'s environment in the halls of Albany.
You have to look beyond the sweeping reforms and big ideas, beyond the New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg [2]'s unsuccessful congestion pricing plan, the failed Bigger Better Bottle Bill and some of the other legislation that made the headlines. It's among the smaller bills - some of which had been stalled for years - that we made meaningful, albeit modest gains.
First, it was passage of the Great Lakes Compact, to protect our natural resources from being drained away for drinking water. Then it was an increase in funding for state parks and open space preservation, as well as a tax credit that makes it easier for homeowners to use renewable fuels for heating. Early last month, both houses approved legislation that requires the state to adhere to green building practices (a bill that nearly passed last year but got held up on a technicality).
In the session's waning days lawmakers passed bills to expand the use of solar energy, green roofs and better traffic enforcement. And in the eleventh hour Albany overhauled its brownfield cleanup program, ensuring that money to redevelop contaminated sites is better spent and targeted to where it's truly needed.
At the grassroots level, the public's awareness of environmental issues has expanded greatly because of climate change. A recent Yale University [3] study found that 83 percent of Americans now say global warming is a serious problem, and 63 percent of Americans believe the United States is in as much danger from environmental hazards, such as air pollution and global warming, as it is from terrorists.
The fact that Washington has taken few meaningful steps to fight global warming has only increased pressure on other levels of government to do their part, and now it is the states and municipalities that are taking the lead.
Environmental organizations are also becoming more sophisticated. The Internet has made organizing cheaper, faster and easier, allowing green groups to mobilize advocates and contact their legislators with just a few clicks of their computer mouse or over the phone. Those constituent contacts make an important difference, particularly for the smaller bills - legislators may get a sea of correspondence about controversial issues, but a handful of calls on discrete pieces of legislation helps raise their priority.
Perhaps most important, environmental groups have done a better job of debunking the false choice of the economy versus sustainability. In fact, more often than not, what's good for the environment is also good for the bottom line: Energy efficiency and conservation, the creation of jobs in the clean-technology sector, and smart growth advance both goals at once.
None of this is lost on Albany legislators, who synthesize a wide range of feedback before making their moves. The result is a subtle yet important shift toward seeing the issues in a less partisan way. That's the key to breaking Albany's entrenched partisan culture, since the gradual progress New York is making on the environment wouldn't be possible without the support of both houses and parties.
Looking ahead, there's no question that much more needs to be done. Money from the 1996 Environmental Bond Act has been spent down, but the need to upgrade our crumbling infrastructure remains. Too many low-income communities bear more than their fair share of environmental burdens. Worst of all, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority [4]'s financial picture has darkened considerably, and legislators will probably have to reconvene later this year to protect this lifeblood of Long Island [5].
The best way to tackle these issues is for each of us to get the facts, learn what our individual representatives did and didn't do this session, and reward them appropriately at the polls in September and November.
After all, climate change is the biggest challenge facing this generation. Let's make sure our elected leaders are up to the fight.