NCLCV’s scorecards give appallingly bad grades to both the legislature and the governor, but there was also a notable local electoral green light, this week in CIB:
Legislative Watch: A Record Number of Zeroes
By at least one clear measure, the 2013 N.C. General Assembly was the worst legislature in state history. A record number of legislators–82, almost half the total number of the General Assembly’s members–scored zero on the 2013 NCLCV Legislative Scorecard.
As in zip. Zilch. Absolutely no pro-environment votes among the nine key House or ten key Senate votes scored. Voted against clean energy, reasonable controls on water and air pollution, objective knowledgeable citizen regulatory boards and commissions, wetlands and riparian buffer protections, safe controls on fracking, coastal protections, clean drinking water reservoirs…the whole green ball of earth.
To put this massive failure into further perspective, from 1999 through 2012, the NCLCV Scorecards awarded a total of 48 “zeroes”–and then in 2013 alone the total for this year soared to 82.
Beyond that, 25 of the rest couldn’t get their score above single digits on a scale of 100. All told, the average score this year for the House was 34%, down from 42% in 2012; and the Senate’s average score was an even worse 28%, down from 35% in 2012.
The only reason the average scores weren’t even worse was that 27 legislators were environmental stars who each scored a perfect 100% on all the scored key votes. The Scorecard also notes one major issue area bright spot from the session: The Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (REPS) survived a furious attempt at repeal by some of the most anti-environmental forces in the state. The REPS mandates that power companies produce a modest (but slowly growing) percentage of their electricity from clean renewable sources like solar and wind. It stayed in place, ironically, because the utilities themselves didn’t support its repeal. It’s also because new solar businesses (many in job-hungry rural counties) convinced their areas’ legislators to not kill those local jobs, by not killing the job-generating REPS.
Want to find your legislators’ scores? Go here for that information: nclcv.org/involved/scorecard2013/ Then join fellow conservationists in letting your legislators know what you think of their performances, either good or bad. It’s a way to start letting them know that you’re watching–and that they will be held accountable for how they treat the clean water, air, and land on which we all depend.
Executive Watch: Governor’s Grade Not Encouraging Either
About the best that can be said for Gov. Pat McCrory’s 2013 Environmental Scorecard grade is that it was better than the General Assembly’s. He earned that modest distinction with his grade of “D-“.
The report scores McCrory’s performance as a failing “F” on his budget proposal, and on his appointments to key administrative posts like budget director and Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). He also gets a “D” for water resources. Only his grade of “C” on clean air and energy pulls him up from an overall fail. His “C” in that area comes from his public support for renewable energy resources like solar and offshore wind…balanced out, unfortunately by his aggressive support of dirty energy production (offshore drilling and coal) as well.
The more detailed discussion of McCrory’s early environmental performance in office is found on pps. 14-15 of the 2013 NCLCV Legislative Scorecard.
Watch: Raleigh Transportation Bonds Win Big
In last week’s round of the 2013 NC municipal elections, one clear sign of voters’ interest in supporting “green infrastructure” came in Raleigh. Voters there overwhelmingly approved $75 million in city transportation bonds which included money for improvement of bus stops, adding traffic-calming roundabouts, and building miles of sidewalks and bike lanes.
The inclusion of these alternative or green transportation measures in the kind of bond package that might once have gone toward nothing but more roads and highway lanes shows the growing public support for a balanced transportation system. Public transit and bike/pedestrian infrastructure counts with voters. In Raleigh last week, it counted up to a 70% approval percentage–even when voters knew that the bonds are to be financed with a 1.12 cent increase in their property tax rate.
That’s our report for this week.
