The public can discover how Michigan legislators voted on environmental issues important to the Michigan League of Conservation Voters with the group’s recently released 2013-2014 Michigan Environmental Scorecard. The non-partisan organization of 90,000 members is dedicated to protecting Michigan’s air, land and water. Lisa Wozniak, the group’s executive director, said its top priorities are boosting energy efficiency, increasing renewable energy standards over 10 percent, obtaining stronger protection against fracking, reducing water contamination and preserving public land
The scorecard shows each vote in the state House and the Senate and their respective committees on environmental bills. The score of a lawmaker increases up to 10 percentage points if they vote in favor of the environment and decreases up to 10 percentage points when they vote against it. Final scores were comprised of:
Floor score, the number of votes in favor of the environment divided by the number of votes taken
Committee bump, a measure of how each legislator performed on the committee they served, adjusting their score plus or minus 10 percent
Bill sponsorship bump, the legislator’s individual evaluation based on how many bills they introduced on priority environmental issues, adjusting scores plus or minus 5 percentage points
The scorecard indicates a difference in support for environmental issues depending on political affiliation. In the House, Republican Frank Franz received the lowest score of 5 percent. Continue Reading →
