Campaign Watch: Environmental Scorecard Shows Sorry Legislative Records
From special privileges for the world’s biggest corporate hog polluter, to placing new restrictions on the use of water quality research to protect public health, most sitting North Carolina state legislators posted failing grades in NCLCV’s newest scorecard assessing the 2017 and 2018 legislative sessions.
“The last two years have been marked by the General Assembly’s failure to solve the GenX crisis, leaving thousands of North Carolinians’ drinking water poisoned. On GenX, hog waste, coal ash, continuing rollbacks of common-sense health protections, and the wind energy ban, they have prioritized corporate polluters instead of the people,” said Dan Crawford, NCLCV director of governmental relations.
Of North Carolina’s 170 incumbent state legislators, fully 83 scored a zero on the 2017-18 Environmental Scorecard. These polluters’ pals cast not a single pro-environment vote on the key issues scored. While 31 incumbent legislators stood at the opposite positive end—a 100% pro-environment score this session—the balance of the numbers is clear. Returning to environment-friendly laws and budgets in our state will require a major change in who makes up the General Assembly.
This year’s scorecard contains the usual detailed voting record by legislators on key environmental votes, as well as special features, all immediately relevant to the choices voters will make at the polls:
- Each legislator’s environmental score, including votes on each of the bills scored
- An explanation of each vote selected for scoring
- An overview of the key state legislative debates over the last two years
- A look at Gov. Roy Cooper’s performance to date
- An examination of the proposed state constitutional amendments through an environmental, public health, and voting rights lens
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