Here’s the Environment Texas scorecard (PDF) for the 2009 legislative session. A few points of interest:
– There were seven scored voted for Senators, and eight for the House. For all but two, the “right” vote was Yes, which is pretty strong evidence that this was a much friendlier session for environmental issues than we’d seen in recent years.
– Nobody scored zero, though a handful of House Republicans had only one good vote. In the Senate, 19 of 31 members – all 12 Democrats plus seven Republicans – got perfect scores. Only four Republicans in the Senate received grades below 60%.
– Fifteen House Dems had perfect scores: Robert Alonzo, Carol Alvarado, Valinda Bolton, Lon Burnam, Garnet Coleman, Joe Farias, Pete Gallego, Ana Hernandez, Abel Herrero, David Leibowitz, Diana Maldonado, Armando Martinez, Joe Moody, Marc Veasey, and Armando Walle. The low scorers were Harold Dutton and Tracy King, each with 63%. Rob Orr was the top-ranked Republican, with 75%. Jim Pitts, who had excused absences for all but three votes, scored 67%, and a total of 11 Republicans had 63s.
– Unfortunately, only three of these bills passed both chambers, with one of them (HB821 by Leibowitz, which would have required television manufacturers to provide free recycling for discarded TVs) being vetoed by Governor Perry. As such, while this session was a lot more positive than others had been for environmental issues, it could have been a lot better.