ddrezeli's blog

That's the question in the minds of many observers of environmental policy-making this week, as a wave of the greenest legislators in North Carolina decline to stand for re-election in the face of radically re-engineered district lines.

The latest worrisome retirement announcement came last week from former House Speaker Joe Hackney, long considered the leading environmental champion in the N.C. General Assembly. Redistricting had gerrymandered Hackney into a "double-bunking" of incumbents with fellow legislator Rep. Verla Insko (D-Orange).

After months of waiting for the Legislature to officially end the 2011 Long Session, the NC League of Conservation Voters released its annual Conservation Scorecard. NCLCV has been scoring NC Legislators on environmental issues since 1999 and this year’s scores are the lowest they have ever been. The Scorecard is a valuable tool voters can use to evaluate which legislators best represent their environmental values. The Conservation Scorecard gives each state legislator a score of 0 to 100 based on his or her votes on key environmental bills in the recent session of the General Assembly.

The North Carolina League of Conservation Voters Foundation began running radio ads last week informing the public that the legislature is ignoring its mandate to create jobs while scrapping policies that protect water and air quality. The ad highlights that numerous pieces of legislation threaten jobs created by tourism which are dependent on clean water and air.  They also launched a web site, www.thataintrightnc.org, which offers details about the impact of legislation and lists bills that have little to do with jobs but everything to do with eliminating environmental protections.

North Carolina's oldest independent state-level citizen conservation group has changed its name to better reflect its current work on behalf of our state's environment. The citizen group known since 1968 as the Conservation Council of North Carolina is now the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters (NCLCV).

While there may have been an upset in the NC Legislature overall, pro-conservation candidates performed well in the 2010 General Election. Of the 20 Conservation Council of North Carolina (CCNC) endorsed NC Senate races, 14 were victorious. The NC House saw an equally satisfying run with 36 of the 45 endorsed races claiming the win. The successful endorsed candidates also include 17 former recipients of a CCNC Green Tie Award for their achievements and support of conservation efforts. A full summary of endorsed candidates is available here.

Conservation Council of North Carolina (CCNC) applauds the 30 legislators who had a perfect score on its 2010 Conservation Scorecard, released on Monday. Also noted in the Scorecard is a description of the environmental bills used to determine the overall score for each legislator. While most of the 12 issues tracked ended on a positive environmental note, of particular interest is the worst piece of environmental legislation passed in a long time. Senate Bill 778 exempts businesses that receive economic incentives from key State Environmental Policy Act requirements and will have far-reaching effects on our environment.

The complete Scorecard can be viewed online at:
http://www.conservationcouncilnc.org/our-work/scorecards/scorecard_2010.pdf