Oct 30 - How Green is My Legislative Representative?

The California League of Conservation Voters has unveiled their annual Environmental Scorecard for the members of the State Legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger. The scorecard looks at the votes on key environmental bills during the year. Californians Against Waste and other environmental groups help identify priority bills for the scorecard.

The average score for Democrats in the legislature was 88%; and for Republicans 6%. Governor Schwarzenegger saw his score drop to 50% (from 58% in 2005).

And while Democrats have strong majorities in both the State Assembly and the Senate, there is not a majority of 'environmentalists' in either house. In the Assembly, where 41 votes are needed to pass most bills, just 37 members voted with the environmental community 80% of the time. In the Senate, where 21 votes are needed to pass most bills, only 20 members voted with the environmental community 80% of the time. What that means is that in order for any environmental legislation to pass, compromises need to be made in order to gain the support of members of the legislature for whom the environment is not a priority.

CAW has included the environmental voting records for members of the legislature on our website, along with their e-mail addresses. I encourage you to contact your legislative representative and let them know how your feel about their environmental voting record.