The new Virginia League of Conservation Voters scorecard is out, and there are a few highlights that jump out at me.*The average annual score went up sharply in the House of Delegates, from 56% last year to 73% this year. That's great news! In the Senate, things stayed about the same, at 55% in 2007 compared to 54% in 2006.
*Not one Virginia legislator scored 25% or below.
*The Virginia LCV has some tough words for the transportation bill (HB 3202) that passed this year:
Coming up with $3 billion to fund new roads-building with only modest land
use reforms will make any conservationist weak in the knees. Worse, many of the prioritized projects on VDOT's list will exacerbate sprawl, pave ecologically sensitive areas, or use taxpayer dollars frivolously. The Hampton Roads regional plan raises some serious concerns because of the list of sprawl-inducing, wasteful projects such as a new Route 460 bypass and the Southeastern Expressway.
Yet more reasons why this transportation bill, conceived and pushed by House Rpeublicans, was a poorly conceived "monstrosity," as we've been calling it for months.
*On global warming, the Republican-controlled House and Senate failed miserably:
In a time when we should find ways to produce carbon-neutral energy (energy that doesn't emit greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide) and use the energy we do produce more efficiently, the General Assembly did not look very favorably upon legislation dealing with renewable energy or energy conservation.
*On the Dominion Power, lobbyist-written reregulation bill, the LCV comments that the General Assembly "made no mandatory renewable energy investment or energy conservation requirements, and actually offered incentive for new coal-fired power plants." Thanks to Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D-Arlington), we at least have "a voluntary renewable energy incentive program." But all in all, I agree with the LCV's analysis that "the Senate and House both overwhelmingly passed these bills that do not acknowledge global warming or the need to build energy security and independence." Lame.
Numbers in the 70% range make it sound like they're actually doing a good job at addressing these problems.
Yeah, I know, the LCV determines their ratings based on votes, but there should be HUGE demerits for massive failures or general lack of effort. The House average should be down around 10% - if that.
The simple end result of this report, the individual ratings, are complete garbage when you look at the bigger picture.
If a vote does not illustrate a clear distinction between those who support the conservation position and those who do not, often that vote is discarded as a Scorecard vote. This is a natural limitation
of a Scorecard that is particularly visible in a year when there are so few significant conservation initiatives.
And they do not include the the transportation bill as a part of their scorecard.