June 29, 2011 10:50 PM UTC

Keeping Score in 2011

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• by: ColoradoConservationVoters

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

It’s that time of year! Colorado Conservation Voters released its 15th annual legislative conservation scorecard today and declared the 2011 session a success for conservation. While there were numerous attacks on previous years’ successes in building the New Energy Economy, they all failed. In addition, the legislature adopted several important, forward looking, conservation bills, including the Regional Haze State Implementation Plan (SIP).

Coloradans demand their legislators protect our clear air and water for our economy and our way of life. This year showed that our state is not interested in moving backwards as every attempt to undo safeguards for Colorado’s environment and clean energy economy was soundly defeated.

Among the topics evaluated in the 2011 Conservation Scorecard are:

Numerous bills were introduced that would have degraded our air quality, putting Coloradans at risk to heart and lung disease from pollution. Ultimately, those bills died and an historic regional haze plan was passed.

Forty-one of the Legislature’s 100 members received 100 percent ratings and no legislator received a zero score. In addition to the scored votes, the Scorecard this year also recognizes several legislators for their work in committees and in leadership roles to protect Colorado’s environment including:

Senators Bob Bacon, Betty Boyd and Rollie Heath. Many of the most egregious attacks on Colorado’s environment were killed in the Senate State, Military, and Veterans Affairs committee.

Representatives Kevin Priola and Marsha Looper worked on critical conservation issues and were able to work effectively with others in their Party to mitigate flawed energy proposals.

Speaker Frank McNulty and Senate Majority Leader John Morse set aside partisan political differences in order to pass the Regional Haze State Implementation Plan to implement groundbreaking air quality legislation.

Senate President Brandon Shaffer’s leadership was critical to the passage of this year’s air quality, diesel idling standards, and pro-solar power legislation and in killing numerous anti-environment bills.

Representative Keith Swerdfeger and Senator Angela Giron from Pueblo both worked diligently to build consensus on a smart clean energy storage proposal, worked hard on a water bill to allow for small scale, hydro power, and were leaders in brokering a bipartisan compromise on air quality modeling.

Senator Gail Schwartz and Representative Randy Fischer are longtime conservation champions who have led the charge on many bills on clean energy and green jobs and worked especially hard this session on recycling bills.

In addition to these lawmakers, I want to thank the people of Colorado. Our neighbors across the state take the time to weigh in with their legislators on environmental issues and it makes a real difference when it’s time for our elected representatives to make the tough decisions. It takes us all to protect the Colorado way of life and we at CCV appreciate the input of our friends from across the state. If you would like to join our email list and get alerts when critical environmental decisions are being made, sign up on our website.