The recession can provide opportunities for preserving our environment and building a new economy.  If we have the political will to try to the best we can in the worst of times.

"Never Waste the opportunities offered by a good crisis." That advice was given by Niccolo Machiavelli, the 15th century Florentine thinker and politician. It resonates today.

Our current crisis offers the nation the chance to rebuild the economy based on a greener model that weans the nation off its dependence on overseas oil. And it gives Rhode Islanders a chance to join that effort and at the same time preserve land and buildings that make our state so special.

Labor and environmental advocates have not always gotten along. But unions have finally come to see how a green jobs movement could help recruit new members for organized labor.

This new push for renewable energy has already created some strange bedfellows. At a recent Good Jobs Green Jobs conference in Washington, D.C. steelworkers agreed with Sierra Club members. A commercial wind turbine has more than 8,000 parts and uses more steel than 225 midsize cars.

Where are the jobs?  Well, they vary from scientists and engineers designing path-breaking technological devices to people building wind turbines and installing solar panels. A movement towards energy efficiency would include labor-intensive work retrofitting buildings, employing putting roofers, carpenters and insulation installers.

It is here that state and federal governments can provide leadership and create markets for this new industry.

Rhode Island has made some progress here, as the wind turbines sprouting up around the state attest. Now we must make sure that our state utility regulation framework is updated to encourage these renewable wind mills.

There will be trade-offs and forging this new economy won’t always be easy.

As those pushing for the wind turbine farm off Nantucket have discovered in recent years, opposition from recreational uses of our waters can be fierce.

Rhode Island is the second-most densely populated state in the country, after New Jersey. Conservation expert Scott Wolf of Grow Smart Rhode Island says our state is in the ``ninth inning’’ of land preservation.

OnCe a state loses a pristine slice of land, it is gone forever. Think of the majesty of a stroll through Colt State Park on a sunny afternoon. How different it would be if that 400-acre Narragansett Bay overlook in Bristol was a gated community of condominiums and boutiques.

Now is the time to identify and approve bonds to purchase conservation lands, preserving our natural bounty for future generations. And is the time to purchase development rights to our working farms to ensure that farmers can make a living for another generation and preserve our meadows and views.

Then there is the state’s heritage of preserving its historical architecture. One of the reason people love to visit our state is because we reuse historical buildings, restoring what was once a house into a home for an office or restaurant. This means the state ought to restore cuts made in recent years to the tax credits given for historic renovations. These projects preserve our past and create scores of construction-related jobs.

The history of energy independence in our state and country is mostly one of missed opportunities. Since the first of the great oil shocks in the 1970s, successive presidential administrations and congresses have vowed change. For many reasons nothing significant ever happened.

But we may finally be running out of options. The oil is running out and the costs of coaxing it from the ground are only going to increase. We can either use that oil prudently now, on our own timetable, or wait until there is another squeeze from the Persian Gulf and be forced into a helter-skelter, panicky solution.

And we can either preserve our natural beauty or leave our children with fewer opportunities for a walk along  water at Colt State Park or Beavertail or a hike in the woods at Pulaski Park.