Enviro Grades Are Out!

Portland Mercury:

Environmental news is usually black or white: either it's mind-blowingly uplifting or devastatingly depressing. But what about the cold hard policies and policy-makers behind these headlines — how do they rate? Oregon League of Conservation Voters released their annual environmental scorecard for the Oregon legislature to illustrate just that. First, the bad marks: OLCV dually scolded the legislature for voting against a statewide BPA ban and plastic bag ban. However, the report did applaud Portland's upcoming accomplishment: Shortly after the close of the legislative session, the Portland City Council and Mayor Sam Adams showed extraordinary leadership by banning these bags in Portland. The report goes on to rank each House and Senate representative on the environmentally soundness of their session votes. Topping the charts with an 100 percent score: Floyd Prozanski, Jackie Dingfelder (also labeled "Environmental Champion of the Year"), Suzanne Bonamici, Alan Bates, and Jason Atkinson, Mary Nolan, Carolyn Tomei, and Peter Buckley. On the other side of the spectrum, Roseburg's Tim Freeman scored a failing 36 percent with fellow Roseburgian Jeff Kruse following close behind at 46 percent. Oh, logging. So why wait? Check out how your favorite legislative figure ranked before they accidentally vote to kill thousands of salmon or saran-wrap the entire city of Portland. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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