Fewer Maryland lawmakers earned perfect grades from environmental activists for their votes in Annapolis this year - an erosion of support that green group leaders attributed to the poor economy and budget crisis.
Just one state senator and 44 delegates earned spotless grades on this year's environmental scorecard released today by the Maryland League of Conservation Voters. That's down from 11 senators and 57 House members with perfect scores in 2009.
But for the first time in 16 years, a Republican - Del. Steven R. Schuh of northern Anne Arundel County - managed a 100 percent score.
"Everyone knows it was a tough year fiscally," Cindy Schwartz, the league's executive director, said in a statement. "We were realistic about the amount of progress we could make this year. However, in tough times, we need to be more vigilant about the resources that make up the basis of our economy.
"Good environmental policy is good fiscal policy," Schwartz contended, adding that the scorecard shows which legislators made that connection and which did not.
The 90-day session was a turbulent one for green activists, with the Senate voting to delay creation of oyster sanctuaries in the Chesapeake Bay and mulling major budget cuts to environmental programs like Program Open Space. The sanctuary delay died in the House, and the General Assembly wound up preserving remaining funds for parkland acquisition and approving $22.5 million for the bay trust fund earmarked to combat polluted runoff.
"Unfortunately, for most of the 2010 legislative session, legislators seemed to push environmental priorities to the back burner,'' said Brad Heavner, state director for Environment Maryland, which helped rate the lawmakers.
Unmentioned in the green groups' release was the House approval of a bill delaying and weakening some provisions of a 2007 law tightening controls on storm-water pollution from development. The measure split the environmental community, with the league favoring it over the possibility of a more sweeping rollback. But the bill died in the Senate after a joint legislative committee approved emergency regulations to the same effect put forward by the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Activists said House members have consistently voted greener than their Senate counterparts, and the split seemed to grow this year. Sen. Paul G. Pinsky, a Prince George's County Democrat, was the lone senator to earn 100 percent on this year's scorecard.
Eleven senators and four House members scored 30 percent or lower on the groups' report card, all of them Republicans. But the league held out the top score of Schuh (pictured at left) as evidence that environmental awareness crosses party lines. He was among the incumbent legislators the league endorsed for reelection earlier this month.
Pinsky and Schuh were invited to join the league at Annapolis City Dock this morning when the group released its 2010 legislators' scorecard.
The last time Republican legislators got perfect green grades from activists was in 1994. They were Dels. Wade Kach of Baltimore County and Martin Madden of Howard County, who's no longer in the General Assembly.