June 22, 2010 06:02 PM UTC

Keeping Score in 2010

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• by: ColoradoConservationVoters

Today we released the 2010 Colorado Legislative Conservation Scorecard and the results were eye popping:

• 51 legislators had perfect 100% scores this year;

• No one had scored a zero, even though Senator Schultheis and Representative Liston didn’t quite make double digits;

• We played offense this year – every bill we scored was proactive and forward-looking.

• We succeeded in moving an agenda that was both pro-environment and pro-economy.

These high scores are not the result of a watered down “everyone can be green” agenda.  This year the conservation community worked hard to pass groundbreaking legislation that makes Colorado a national leader on conservation issues and positions us to be among the first to capitalize on a new energy future.

Highlighted bills include those that:

• Promote water smart homes and water efficiency;

• Preserve agricultural areas and ensure taxpayer dollars are being used wisely;

• Increase Colorado’s renewable energy standard (the amount of energy that comes from renewable sources) from 20 percent to 30 percent by 2020;

• Promote green job training;

• Allow the creation of solar gardens;

• Require that companies processing uranium clean up current sites before expanding operations;

• Create clean energy jobs;

• And, create wildlife crossing zones on highways.

This legislature demonstrated leadership that puts Colorado at the forefront nationally in conservation. The real winners are Colorado families and the economy. By expanding clean energy opportunities, promoting water efficiency, and requiring corporate interests to be accountable for cleaning up their messes, state legislators will help rejuvenate Colorado’s economy, put Coloradan’s back to work, and protect Colorado taxpayers.

All told, legislators passed 34 bills that make Colorado a leader not only in the West but nationally on conservation issues. This is the right direction to be moving in, and we should credit Colorado leaders for starting down this path years ago – without the need of an international tragedy like the Gulf oil spill to spur their actions.

Now it is time that we look for leaders in this year’s election that will continue this groundbreaking work, not turn back the clock.

To see the full scorecard, click http://coloradoconservationvot…