Press Release
November 9, 2011
Contact: Jenesse Miller, CLCV (510-844-0235)
California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV) Releases 2011 California Environmental Scorecard
Scorecard Reveals Importance of Electing Environmental Champions in 2012 Election
OAKLAND, Calif. (Nov. 9, 2011) – The California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV) – the political arm of the environmental movement in California – announced the release of its annual California Environmental Scorecard today, one year prior to the 2012 election. The record of the year’s most important environmental votes (available at www.ecovote.org/scorecard) reveals how members of the state legislature and Governor Jerry Brown performed on the environment in the 2011 legislative session.
“If there is one takeaway message from CLCV’s 2011 Scorecard it is the need to elect environmental champions in 2012 who protect our air, water, wild spaces, and quality of life,” said Warner Chabot, CLCV Chief Executive Officer. “The combination of redistricting and open primaries will produce an unprecedented number of competitive races for the legislature in 2012. This represents a huge opportunity to elect a ‘green’ majority to the legislature.”
The 2011 Environmental Scorecard details how right-wing legislators used the recession to justify a record number of bills attacking California’s bedrock environmental protections. CLCV and its partners defeated the majority of these proposals while advocating for dozens of bills to expand clean energy usage and protect public health and natural resources. Working with several new lawmakers, the environmental community helped deliver several of these proposals to Governor Brown’s desk.
True to his campaign promise to be a champion for the environment, Governor Brown signed the vast majority of pro-environmental bills, including: a landmark bill to increase California’s renewable energy portfolio standard to 33% by 2020; a bill to protect babies and toddlers from a toxic chemical in bottles and sippy cups; a ban on the sale and possession of shark fins; and a package of legislation that makes clean drinking water more accessible for all Californians.
“Importantly, several of CLCV’s priority bills failed by only a few votes and never made it to the governor’s desk. This underscores the need to elect an environmental majority in California’s legislature,” said Chabot. “CLCV is hard at work to elect legislators in 2012 who will reject demands to roll back our landmark environmental laws. We need to elect leaders who will protect California’s natural heritage and state parks, safeguard the public’s health by working to improve air and water quality, and reduce our exposure to toxic chemicals. Finally, we must elect champions for clean technology and renewable energy opportunities that will keep California at the forefront of a new economic prosperity.”
2011 California Environmental Scorecard Highlights: |
|
|---|---|
| Governor Jerry Brown | 83% |
| Average of all Assemblymembers | 67% |
| Average Assembly Democrat Score | 92% |
| Average Assembly Republican Score | 19% |
|
Perfect 100s (Allen, Ammiano, Butler, Cedillo, Davis, Feuer, Fong, Gordon, Hayashi, B. Lowenthal, Monning, Skinner, Swanson, Yamada) |
14 |
| Average of all Senators | 61% |
| Average Senate Democrat Score | 86% |
| Average Senate Republican Score | 18% |
|
Perfect 100s (Corbett, DeSaulnier, Evans, Kehoe, Liu, Steinberg) |
6 |
| Governors’ Lifetime Scores since 1975 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983-90 | 1991-98 | 1999-2003 | 2004-10 | 1975-82, 2011 | |||||
| Score | 46 | 33 | 82 | 53 | 86 | ||||
| Governor | Deukmejian | Wilson | Davis | Schwarzenegger | Brown | ||||
ABOUT CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL VOTERS
California Environmental Voters (formerly the California League of Conservation Voters) believes the climate crisis is here and this moment requires transformative change. California has the policy solutions to stop climate change but lacks the political will to do it at the rate and scale that’s necessary. EnviroVoters exists to build the political power to solve the climate crisis, advance justice, and create a roadmap for global action. We organize voters, elect and train candidates, and hold lawmakers accountable for bold policy change. We won’t stop until we have resilient, healthy, thriving communities, and a democracy and economy that is just and sustainable for all. Join us at www.envirovoters.org and on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. See more press releases.
