Political notebook - NCLCV scorecard

SALISBURY — For the 2012 short session, an advocacy group has given Rowan County's three state legislators its lowest possible score on environmental issues.

N.C. League of Conservation Voters released its conservation scorecard Monday. The scorecard gives each state legislator a score of zero to 100 based on his or her votes on key environmental bills in the recent session of the General Assembly.

Since 1999, the league has handed out only four zero percent scores on the Legislative Scorecard, the last in 2001. During the 2012 short session, 44 legislators earned zeros.

Those include N.C. Rep. Harry Warren (whose lifetime score is 9 percent), N.C. Rep. Fred Steen (lifetime score of 41 percent) and N.C. Sen. Andrew Brock (lifetime score of 42 percent).

Among the legislation the league says it considered are bills to explore hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," cut funding for the Clean Water Management Fund, roll back rules to clean up key drinking water supplies and prohibit certain policies regarding sea level rise.

The average score in the House for the 2011-12 session was 42 percent, down from 67 percent for the 2009-10 average. The Senate average was 31 percent, compared to 69 percent in 2009-10.

The complete scorecard, can be viewed online at nclcv.org/scorecard

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