WXXI: Senate GOP Improves Environmental Voting Record (2008-10-01)

A leading environmental group has published it's annual guide of the voting records of state lawmakers on environmental bills. It found that Republicans in the State Senate, who are struggling to hold the majority in that house, supported more green initiatives than in previous years.

Environmental Advocates found that Republican State Senators, on average, received higher scores this year in the group's annual rating of lawmaker's environmental voting records.

Environmental Advocate's Rob Moore says in the past, GOP Senators lagged far behind their Democratic counterparts. In 2006, they scored an average of 25 points lower. But he says this year, the gap has narrowed to just ten points.

"More big ticket environmental measures are being acted upon in the State Senate," Moore said. "Which reverses a long time trend."

The group believes the Republicans' razor thin majority of 31 to 30 seats may have made some Senators more open to environmental legislation than in the past. The environment usually scores high in polls measuring voter's top concerns. Many more Republicans backed a net metering law, which passed both houses. It allows people to sell back alternative power they generate to utilities. More GOP Senators also backed a measure that made improvements to the Brownfields industrial clean up program.

In fact, the new Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, scored a 76, four points higher than Senate Democratic Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, who received a score of 72, though the average rating for Senate Democrats was 85.

Nevertheless, the environmentalists weren't completely pleased- three key bills that they sought- to protect wetlands, curb global warming, and expand the bottle deposit law, died in committees in the Senate.

The highest scoring members of the legislature were Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari, who both received a score of 100 from the group. The average for Assembly Democrats was 98, and it was 79 for Assembly Republicans.

The group also awarded to Assembly Energy committee Chair Kevin Cahill, a Democrat from the Hudson Valley, legislator of the year. Cahill says what the state really needs next is a comprehensive energy plan.

"Without an energy plan, we're really taking everything out of context," Cahill said. "When we don't consider the environment we live in, we're bound to make an error in judgment."

Environmental Advocates does not rank governors in their survey, but Moore gives Governor David Paterson credit for pulling the plug on the proposed floating liquid natural gas storage tank in Long Island sound, in his first days as governor. But he criticized the secretive budget negotiations this year, and the raid of an environmental fund to balance the spending plan.

The group says their biggest disappointment in the 2008 session was that the legislature took no action on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan.