State Lawmakers Get Far-Flung Help to Pass Environmental Bills

A New Hampshire state senator got a bill passed protecting wildlife corridors thanks to talks with a Pennsylvanian. Vermont legislators’ tips helped a Colorado representative get a plastic bag ban over the finish line. And a Minnesota lawmaker drew on California and Oregon guidance to draft legislation that would change the analysis of cumulative impacts.

As those legislators and others head back to work in January, they’re increasingly drawing on advice from colleagues in far-flung locations who bear the scars of passing environmental bills in their own states.

They’re being pulled together by the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, an ...