There should be an environmental amendment to our national Constitution. It should provide every American with the absolute right to breathe good, clean air and drink uncontaminated fresh water. And any State laws to the contrary should be invalidated as unconstitutional.

While I dislike nationalizing what should be local environmental issues, I believe that State elected officials are too often too weak to do the right thing. An amendment would allow them to support the environment on the basis that not doing so would be unconstitutional. A perfect Fourth of July theme.

The June fight over whether Amtrak should live or die is proof of how difficult it is to trust that our elected officials will save our environment. Of course we need Amtrak. Even if Amtrak costs four times more to run than it brings in. Of course, the same applies to all mass transit.

Mass transit is important to our communities. This is so even in the case of mass transit that serves communities that are many miles from where your live. Why? Because mass transit keeps our air cleaner.

The buses and trains run anyway. So, let's pack as many people on them as possible. Every person, or so, on a train, bus or ferry, means one less car on our highways. And cars cause massive air pollution that is hurting and killing us, in the cities, the suburbs and on the farms.

Mass transit should be no more self-sustaining than roads. In fact, roads are never self sustaining. If you build roads, people will always use them, but the users pay nothing extra to use them.

Roads just cost money. They need to be built and maintained, and patrolled - all of which costs plenty. And when people become ill because of the roads, or die early, that too costs money. Roads represent the least efficient form of travel in America. If we do not expect them to be self sufficient, why do we place that burden on our most efficient means of getting to and from - mass transit? It makes no sense at all. Politicians and voters simply refuse to understand.

When we subsidize mass transit, we are subsidizing a better environment. More trains and buses always means less smog producing cars. It also means less environmental destruction that results every time we pave the earth to make a new road or highway. Less wetlands destruction and less uncontrolled water runoff. Trains and buses are good things, roads are bad things.

Now New York City is concerned because its wonderful mass transit system is having financial problems. Don't raise fairs. That is completely self defeating. Fairs should be lowered so that more people can be on city trains and subways and off the streets in their cars. Have you ever tried to drive in Manhattan?

The answer is simple. The government needs to subsidize mass transit until it hurts. And we need to stop building roads. Mass transit is good. Roads are bad.

The information provided in this column is written by Stuart Lieberman,a practicing environmental attorney, and is for general information purposes only. It is not legal advice and should not be used in place of legal advice.

Stuart Lieberman, Esq., and IRED.Com, Inc., will not accept any responsibilty for any reliance on the information in this column or any damages whatsoever resulting from reading this column.