Environmental group gives low rankings to Rowan legislators

SALISBURY — An environmental advocacy group gave low marks to Rowan County’s three state legislators in its conservation scorecard released Monday.

The N.C. League of Conservation Voters has been scoring North Carolina legislators on environmental issues since 1999, and this year’s scores are the lowest they have ever been.

The conservation scorecard gives each state legislator a score of 0 to 100 based on his or her votes on key environmental bills in the recent session of the General Assembly.

Sen. Andrew Brock had a score of 8 percent for the last session, compared to his lifetime score of 40 percent.

Rep. Fred Steen’s score this year was 17 percent, and his lifetime score is 46 percent.

Rep. Harry Warren’s score also was 17 percent, which the League compared in the press release to predecessor Lorene Coates’ lifetime score of 74 percent.

Warren said Monday he thinks comparing a one-year record to a 10-year record is unfair, especially during a session focused on reducing spending while providing for health and human services.

“You have to consider that during Lorene’s tenure, the state was on a wild-eyed spending spree,” Warren said. “They could back and pass any legislation they wanted, which has us in the situation we’re in now. So this assembly has had to make some serious cuts, many of them that they didn’t want to.”

But the long-term environmental impact should be considered with any piece of legislation, he said.

Warren said he has concerns about the Energy Jobs Act that would potentially allow a new method of mining natural gas, nicknamed “fracking,” in North Carolina. It also would come closer to allowing offshore oil and gas exploration.

The General Assembly’s Republican majority is trying to override Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of the bill.

“As much as we need jobs, and as much as they say that could generate, I have been researching that intensely,” Warren said, “because I am very concerned about the environmental impact that hydraulic fracturing might leave.”

Steen said he isn’t sure why his conservation score this year is so much lower than his lifetime average.

The state needs to have some environmental safeguards in place, he said, and Republicans have slowed down to make sure those safeguards are in the Energy Jobs Act. But too many restrictions can overburden businesses and hurt the economy, Steen said.

“I think that what we were trying to do this year was find out ways that we could create jobs in North Carolina,” he said. “I think a lot of regulatory type of legislation does not create jobs - it stops jobs.”

The average score in the House for the 2011 session was 43 percent, down from 67 percent for the 2009-2010 average; the Senate average was 27 percent, compared to 69 percent in 2009-2010.

“This year’s scores indicate just how aggressive the new leadership has been in rolling back the environmental protections that make North Carolina a great place to live and do business,” the League wrote in a press release. “With the first bills proposed early on to limit or do away with regulations to the final days of the debate over drilling for oil off North Carolina’s pristine coast and for natural gas in our beautiful piedmont areas, it was clear this new Legislature had environmental protections in their cross hairs.”

For more information and to see the complete scorecard, go to www.nclcv.org/ what/scoring

Contact reporter Karissa Minn at 704-797-4222.

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