month released its annual environ-
mental report cards for state legisla-
tors and an overall decline in scores
for lawmakers across the state was
loosely mirrored by the Lower
Shore's representatives in Annapo-
lis for the most part with few excep-
tions.
ronmental voting records of state
senators and delegates across
Maryland from the most recent Gen-
eral Assembly session. The annual
publication reviews each legislator's
voting record on a wide variety of
key environmental bills and assigns
an overall percentage to each law-
maker akin to a grade-point aver-
age.
related to the environment and con-
servation this year, from the off-
shore wind bill to septic systems
and from fracking in western Mary-
land to numerous bills related to
stormwater management and the
health of the Chesapeake Bay.
Democratic senators scoring an
average of 70 percent and Republi-
cans scoring an average of just 12
percent.
all Delegates was 64 percent. How-
ever House Democrats scored an
average of 81 percent, while Re-
publicans scored an average of 26
percent.
or at least stay the same somewhat
in the 2013 report card, largely be-
cause many of the issues for which
a yes vote would gain them percent-
age points ran counter to the overall
desires of their constituents.
Agricultural Certainty, which grants
participating agricultural operations
in Maryland a 10-year exemption
from state and local rules protecting
water quality.
tion passed.
Mike McDermott (R-38B) and Jim
Otto (R-38A) each voted for the leg-
islation, largely because of their dis-
tricts' agricultural heritage and the
importance of farming on the Lower
Shore's economy.
and white vote on an environmental
issue and does not take into ac-
an issue on a legislator's consti-
tuency. In a fictional example, a lo-
cal legislator could find him or her-
self in the difficult position of voting
against a bill that would protect wet-
lands along the Route 113 dualiza-
tion project if a yes vote would
mean stalling the project so impor-
tant to his or her constituents.
in its annual report card had larger
importance for state lawmakers in
their home districts, the scores gen-
erally declined this year across the
state. Most of the local legislators
saw their scores decline or stay the
same with one exception. Mathias'
score for 2013 was 50 percent,
while his lifetime score is 73 per-
cent. McDermott's 2013 score was
25 percent, up slightly from his life-
time score of 23 percent.
score of 14 percent, with a lifetime
score of 15 percent. Conway's
score for 2013 came in at 75 per-
cent, up from his lifetime score of 65
percent. Thirty-eight legislators in
Maryland received a perfect score
of 100 percent.
makers vote on environmental is-
sues across the board, but it is im-
portant to view the results in the
context of a long record conserva-
tion votes and not on the specific
votes on individual issues.
laws the legislature passed to ad-
vance clean energy and transporta-
tion goals and also how lawmakers
sidestepped many critical issues
during the session.
legislators took action to protect fu-
ture generations from the ravages of
climate change, the health impacts of
pesticides and pollution from industri-
al agriculture," said Maryland LCV
Board Chairman Tony Caligiuri.
"Maryland LCV's scorecard lets citi-
zens know which senators and dele-
gates vote for what is politically con-
venient and who are the real environ-
mental champions."
ers should thank our visionary legis-
lators who voted for the offshore
wind energy bill and the transporta-
tion funding bill to move our state's
economy into the future," she said.
"Similarly, if they are concerned a-
bout the historic impacts of extreme
weather, they should hold legisla-
tors accountable who didn't vote to
take several other opportunities to
curb climate change. Why should
just one bold clean energy bill pass
in a session? We shouldn't have an
environmental quota."
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