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None of Pennsylvania’s state senators voted in favor of environmental legislation more than 80 percent of the time, according to PennEnvironment’s 2005 environmental scorecard released this summer.
PennEnvironment’s scorecard tracks such diverse environmental votes as the funding of Pennsylvania’s conservation programs, promoting energy efficiency, and proposals to use taxpayer monies to subsidize destructive overdevelopment projects.
The average score for a Pennsylvania state senator was 31 percent. While one state senator, recently-elected Sen. Patricia Vance, scored exactly 80 percent, these votes were cast during her tenure as a representative in the Pennsylvania House.
“Big-moneyed special interests continue to roam the halls of the state capitol opposing legislation to create new funding sources for Pennsylvania’s environmental
programs, working to weaken land use protections and threatening key public health proposals.” said David Masur, PennEnvironment’s Director.
PennEnvironment distributed the environmental scorecards statewide to more than 15,000 households as part of its campaign to reduce mercury pollution in Pennsylvania. “These scorecards are an important tool to educate the public about the voting records of their elected officials and to help citizens hold those officials accountable,” said Masur.
The scorecard showed that only 41 of Pennsylvania’s 203 representatives scored 80 percent or above. This is a 35 percent drop since PennEnvironment’s last scorecard was released two years ago. Only fifteen representatives scored 100 percent on the most recent scorecard. This is less than half the number of representatives who scored 100 percent on PennEnvironment’s last scorecard. The average House score was 59 percent this year.
“We urge members of Pennsylvania’s state Legislature to work to protect our open spaces and wild places, defend our clean water protections, and defend the programs that keep Pennsylvania’s environment intact,” concluded Masur.
Click here to view PennEnvironment's Scorecard.
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