In development post, it wasn't easy being green

When he joined the Romney administration, renowned environmental lawyer Douglas I. Foy made clear that his agenda would cover issues both sweeping and symbolic, from reducing power plant pollution to trimming the number of state-owned sport utility vehicles.

Three years later, the state owns more gas-guzzling SUVs than when Foy arrived, and the governor has proposed loopholes in the state's landmark power plant regulations. And environmental advocates -- who long held out hope that the persuasive Foy could coax the governor to be as green as he initially appeared -- were left deflated this week when Foy announced he was stepping down as secretary of the Office for Commonwealth Development.

''I think he was an excellent standard-bearer, and I think he kept his eyes on the prize," said Cindy Luppi, organizing director for Clean Water Action, an environmental advocacy group. ''But I think he got played. I think ultimately other voices within the administration squelched his visionary leadership. And that's sad and disappointing for all of us."

Foy, 59, a dominant force on the Boston landscape for decades, appeared to be a marginalized figure inside state government, some former colleagues in the environmental community say.

While he found common ground with Governor Mitt Romney on so-called smart growth, development designed to curb urban sprawl, Foy failed to influence policy on some of the most politically charged issues of the day. The governor is fighting a plan that would make Massachusetts the home of the nation's first offshore wind farm and help reduce the state's reliance on fossil fuels. Romney backed out of a regional initiative, championed by Foy, for states to reduce greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

As president of the Conservation Law Foundation for 25 years, Foy was the hardball lawyer-advocate who coaxed and threatened politicians into following or advancing environmental law, sometimes halting projects, such as oil drilling off Georges Bank, and sometimes even spurring massive projects, such as the cleanup of the Boston Harbor.

The big-bang theatrics of his private-sector tenure are a far cry from his experience in the Romney administration, where his successes emerged from quiet tinkering with complex bureaucratic systems: steering state spending to communities with zoning that conserves natural resources and creating a highway design manual, what he calls the ''bible of road design" and a ''revolutionary change" for communities.

''Some of the most important changes that happen are subterranean," Foy said in an interview yesterday with the Globe.

Environmental leaders applaud Foy's efforts -- and the Romney administration's commitment -- in setting a bold agenda for smart growth in Massachusetts.

''They did put it on the map," said Marc Draisen, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, which works for smart growth. ''This is really the first time in my recollection of working in politics in Massachusetts that an administration put smart growth front and center as an objective."

Foy says his proudest accomplishment is his very position -- a Cabinet-level post that coordinates policy on environment, transportation, and housing development. It is a novel approach that many agree will, in the long haul, produce more environmentally sound planning.

''This is like turning a supertanker," said Foy, who plans to leave his job in March and says he has no immediate plans. ''We have 50 years of terrible zoning practice in this state. . . . You're not going to turn that around overnight."

But for decades, Massachusetts also had a reputation as a national leader on environmental issues, a role that has been steadily eroded in recent years and even further on Foy's watch, say environmental activists.

''We're well behind," said Luppi. ''I think that we have absolutely lost any claim to being an environmental trendsetter."

When Romney took office, he persuaded many in the environmental movement that he would make dramatic advances, most vividly when he stood outside a Salem power plant and pledged to stand by the past administration's pledges to limit its pollution. Activists who were already impressed that Romney chose Foy for his Cabinet were sold.

But over time, many environmentalists grew concerned that there was diminished appetite for the heady initiatives that Foy tried to foster.

In May 2004, for instance, Foy released a state Climate Protection Plan, outlining plans for reducing pollution from Massachusetts that contributes to global warming. But the same day, Romney made an unusual pronouncement: He wasn't sure climate change was happening.

Now, some of the most tangible aspects of the climate plan -- which Foy had called not just a declaration, but a promise -- lay fallow.

The idea of letting hybrid car drivers use high-occupancy vehicle lanes has stalled, and rather than reducing the number of state-owned SUVs, the fleet has increased slightly from 428 to 431, according to the state Office of Vehicle Management.

Philip Warburg, Foy's successor at the Conservation Law Foundation, said that though Foy set ambitious goals with the Climate Protection Plan, the state has ''come up with next to nothing by way of concrete actions to achieve those targets."

Warburg also pointed to the state's refusal to fund some transit projects that Foy had demanded when he was head of CLF to help offset increased air pollution from the Big Dig. Ironically, CLF is now suing the state over those commitments.

''Those are all grounds for serious disappointment within the environmental community, and they reveal serious shortcomings in the Romney administration's commitment to addressing very real and pressing environmental concerns," Warburg said.

''It's clear that Mitt Romney is not deeply committed to the Massachusetts environment and that made it very hard for Doug Foy to address key issues that we all care about."

Despite the misgivings from former allies, Foy betrays no frustrations with his time in government.

''None, to be honest," he said. ''You can get vastly more accomplished by working within the framework of government than you can being outside as an advocate. . . . I loved every minute of it."

Foy's record

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