New York, NY —

Mayor Bloomberg marked Earth Day yesterday by outlining more than 100 proposals to make New York cleaner as it grow bigger in the years to come. WNYC's Beth Fertig was at the Mayor's presentation

Part of Feeling the Heat: New York Responds to Climate Change

REPORTER: Bloomberg, who is clearly thinking big, gave his speech in the shadow of the great blue whale at the American Museum of Natural History. Facing an audience of environmental and community groups, he got a standing ovation when he said the city needs to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by the year 2030.

BLOOMBERG: The science is there it’s time to stop debating it and to start dealing with it. (APPLAUSE_

REPORTER: To that end, Bloomberg announced 127 separate proposals. They include buying cleaner school buses, cracking down on idling cars, and incentives to make older buildings more energy efficient. NEW construction would also have to be 20 percent more efficient than currently required. But his vision for a sustainable New York ALSO means helping the city cope with an expected population surge of a million more people by 2030. One solution is to double the amount of land available for public housing.

BLOOMBERG: We can do it by decking over rail yards and highways, and using government land more productively. But our most important tool – and the way to achieve our goals while still fighting over-development, is to rezone areas with good access to mass transit, which are best able to absorb additional growth.

REPORTER: Bloomberg also proposed fast-tracking the clean up of polluted lots that could be used for more housing and parks. And he wants to plant a million trees to cool the city and soak up the added flooding that’s expected with climate change.

The elephants were in another part of the museum, but Bloomberg joked about the one in the room: charging people to drive into Manhattan. After floating the idea various times and backing away from it, Bloomberg has now fully embraced congestion pricing. Drivers who enter Manhattan south of 86th Street would pay an 8 dollar fee. He defended the plan passionately.

BLOOMBERG: As the city continues to grow, the costs of congestion – to our health, to our economy, and to our environment are only going to get worse. The question is not whether we want to pay but how do we want to pay? With an increased asthma rate? With more greenhouse gases? Wasted time? Lost business? And higher prices? Or do we charge a modest fee to encourage more people to take mass transit?

REPORTER: Bloomberg proposed a three year pilot program, starting in the spring of 2009, after improvements are made to mass transit. But the proposal needs state approval and, as expected, it was swiftly attacked. Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky has already introduced legislation to block new fees. There is also opposition from businesses in Queens and Brooklyn, as well as restaurants and parking garages in Manhattan. But other political leaders are more neutral – at least for now. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said it’s worth considering; and so did Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion.

CARRION: I don’t think we need to stick our heads in the sand and say it costs 8 dollars it doesn’t make any sense. But we have to ask ourselves the question is it a hidden tax for working families, is it an indirect back door tax to the people who can afford it the least?

REPORTER: But the transit advocates in the audience said congestion pricing is inevitable in a growing city. Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said most city residents wouldn’t be affected.

RUSSIANOFF: The five percent of New Yorkers who are driving into the central business district of Manhattan, they go over free bridges sometimes they use the streets without paying they create accidents and this is a way to make sure that they pay their fair share.

REPORTER: There are other questions about the Mayor’s proposals. Some community groups wonder if enough of the new housing will be affordable. And a coalition of environmental and community groups called MOVE New York criticized the mayor for not proposing a Cross Harbor rail freight Tunnel that could take more trucks off the road.

In the weeks and months ahead, Mayor Bloomberg will have to convince his own constituents and Albany lawmakers of his long term vision. For WNYC I’m Beth Fertig.