Today the Michigan League of Conservation Voters slapped a big fat zero on 12 Michigan legislators for lousy environmental voting records.
The scores are in the non-profit group’s 2009-2010 Environmental Scorecard, a report that rates the state’s elected officials based on their voting record on bills that would affect the state’s natural resources and its citizens’ environmental health.
You can read the 20-page report here (PDF) or search for your Senator or Representative here.
Those earning the zero-percent “Dis-Honorable Mention” include Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) and Sen. Gerald Van Woerkom (R-Muskegon). Van Woerkom is chair of the Senate Agriculture and Bioeconomy Committee and vice chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee.
The report cites the legislature’s partisan divide as a roadblock to Michigan’s environmental progress, a point illustrated by the 14 pro-environment bills passed by the Democratic-led House that stalled in the Republican-led Senate.
Most of the bills were aimed at restricting toxic chemicals, including a 5-bill package that would have banned the sale of several mercury-containing products and enacted new disposal and labeling rules. Echo reported on the mercury package in November.
A House bill that would have banned the fire retardant Deca-BDE, which Capital News Service reported on in December, also stalled in the Senate.
Among the pro-environment bills that were eventually signed by Governor Jennifer Granholm are a two-bill package increasing funds to state parks and a bill banning smoking in public places. The Capital News Service story on the smoking ban has received the most comments of any story on Echo by far.
It’s not all bad news: 43 legislators scored 100 percent, including Rep. Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor), chair of the House Great Lakes and Environment Committee.