The cork is off the champagne on the presidential election – and many environmentalists who’ve felt stifled by the Bush Administration’s indifference, hostility or lukewarm interest in ecological issues, including global warming, are giddy with new possibilities.

Frances Beinecke, head of the non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council, sounded buoyant in an address on the NRDC website: “Barack Obama’s election is a huge win for everyone exhausted from playing defense. Count us among them. It rekindles our hope that environmental protection may be restored to its rightful place as a treasured American value.”

Gene Karpinski, head of the League of Conservation Voters, was no less ebullient. “America embraced change today. And the planet will be better for it,” he announced.

Karpinski noted that, along with Obama, the nation also elected some environmental-minded senators, such as cousins Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.), from a family with a long conservation history.

Greenpeace cleverly marked the moment with a electronic picture postcard to Obama with a “to do” list affixed with checkmarked items like “create jobs”, “boost economy”, “save the world”.

Save the world indeed. But where to begin? As with the economy, the path forward will be complicated. Barack Obama’s election may mean a warmer reception for environmental advocates, but many clashing interests and priorities still clutter the green highway.

Should coal power be nurtured into a new era of “clean coal” production, or summarily replaced with alternative electricity generation that doesn’t consume mountains — but hasn’t been scaled up? Are more incentives needed to boost solar, wind and geothermal research? Where will the money come from? How does the U.S. lead on global warming, when it is the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions (now that China is passing us) on the planet? Can Americans conserve enough to break their dependence on foreign oil? Will struggling automakers deliver on their promise of more efficient cars?

So many questions, such a long agenda, and such a poor economy — no small detail as witnessed by the defeat last night of an initiative in California that would have given rebates to clean-fuel car buyers. Voters apparently didn’t think the state could afford it.

So where does the new president tee off?

We asked a few professional environmental policymakers how they’d advise President-elect Obama.

Some said the new administration should immediately signal that it is ready to lead on the urgent issue that looms over all others: climate change.

“We’ve got to take a long term outlook and restore our image globally… demonstrating that we are serious about our commitment to reducing our own carbon emissions, engaging China and taking a leadership seat at that table,” said Ginette Hemley, senior vice president for policy at the World Wildlife Fund, which recently put out a “Greenprint” for the nation’s newly elected leaders.

Specifically, the incoming administration should send an observing delegation to the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland in December, a prelude to re-crafting the Kyoto Treaty, she said.

The climate change bill may be stuck in Congress but green initiatives march on. From the coasts to the heartland, states are taking matters into their own hands with many governors leading the way.

Among the most prominent “Green Govs” today are Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Democrat Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. Due in part to their green inclinations, we will no doubt be seeing more of these men in years to come. Schwarzenegger indicated recently that he’d be happy to take on the role of energy and environment czar in an Obama Administration; and it’s widely assumed that Patrick, who early on endorsed his fellow Chicagoan and Harvard Law School grad Barack Obama, would have a position in a Democratic White House.

In 2006, Schwarzenegger signed the Global Warming Solutions Act into law. It contains one of the most ambitious rollbacks of emissions levels, requiring that California reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Included in the law is the Climate Change Draft Scoping Plan which Mary Nichols, Chairman of the California’s Air Resources Board, describes as a “roadmap to move us quickly to a cleaner, more sustainable future, energy independence and a healthier environment.

This plan fulfills the Governor’s determination to act now, and it is based on the conviction that Californians will rise to the challenge and develop creative solutions to improve our environment and grow our economy.”

“The Governor is sincere in his green efforts,” says Leo Kay, director of communications for the Air Resources Board. “He puts his money where his mouth is. He’s been very supportive of diesel pollution regulation and even replaced the chair of the board last summer with the very respected Mary Nichols. He has regularly opposed offshore drilling and is much more interested in the possibilities of renewable energy.”

Last year, California made it mandatory for 2009 model cars to be labeled with global warming scores. The higher the score, the cleaner the car.

Schwarzenegger says that after his time as governor, he plans on promoting clean energy around the world. In a July 13 interview on ABC’s This Week, the California governor was critical of the Bush administration’s stance on global warming. The chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, Stephen Johnson, recently said the EPA would not take steps to regulate climate-warming emissions under the existing pollution laws even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the agency had the power to do so.

The governor told This Week’s George Stephanopoulos, that this decision “really means basically this administration did not believe in global warming, or they did not believe that they should do anything about it since China is not doing anything about it and since India is not willing to do the same thing, so why should we do the same thing?” Schwarzenegger added that the United States should lead the fight against global warming, as it did with the international race to the moon in the ‘60s.

Schwarzenegger also is known as a promoter of hydrogen cars and solar energy. His Million Solar Roofs plan, enacted in 2006, which offers homeowners financial incentives for installing solar roofs with the aim of having 1 million solar roofs operating in the state by 2018.