For Immediate Release
October 21, 2019
Contact: Kathryn Phillips 916-893-8494 (mobile)
SACRAMENTO – Sierra Club California released its 2019 report card today that scores the performance of legislators on environmental issues.
Generally, the year’s top environmental bills clearing the legislature were incremental in nature. With a few exceptions, this year’s bills did not assertively challenge the status quo for the most stubborn polluting industries. However, even the incremental bills helped advance environmental quality for Californians.
This year, 34 Assemblymembers and 9 Senators earned 100-percent scores. That’s about twice the number of 100-percent scores typically achieved in the assembly.
The report card also provides an overview of the Newsom administration’s first ten months. This year, although the Governor signed 8 of the 10 bills on the report card that made it to his desk, he also embraced failing water policies, made ill-advised appointments and vetoed several critically important environmental bills.
“It was unfortunate that Governor Newsom started this term with such a weak showing on certain environmental issues that threaten the planet and public health,” said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California. “We haven’t seen the promises for environmental protection boldness that we heard during the campaign fulfilled.”
One bill in particular that Newsom vetoed would have protected California against Trump’s assault on federal environmental policies. Senator Atkins’ Senate Bill 1, also known as the Trump Insurance Bill, was a major priority this year for the environmental community.
To prepare the report card, Sierra Club California staff selected 11 bills to score in the senate and 12 bills to score in the assembly. The bills represent a cross-section of environmental and environmental justice issues, provided vote counts that distinguish the most environmentally consistent legislators, and were among the legislation that Sierra Club’s staff and volunteers were most actively engaged in this year.
How each legislator voted on each bill was noted and a score was calculated by dividing the number of times the legislator voted with Sierra Club’s position by the total number of bills for which the legislator was present to cast a vote.
The report card is available online at Sierra Club California’s website.
The assembly members who earned perfect scores on the report card are:
Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (Assembly District 16), Marc Berman (AD 24), Richard Bloom (AD 50), Rob Bonta (AD 18), Ian Calderon (AD 57), Wendy Carrillo (AD 51), Sabrina Cervantes (AD 60), Ed Chau (AD 49), David Chiu (AD 17), Kansen Chu (AD 25), Jesse Gabriel (AD 45), Cristina Garcia (AD 58), Todd Gloria (AD 78), Lorena Gonzalez (AD 80), Chris Holden (AD 41), Reggie Jones-Sawyer (AD 59), Ash Kalra (AD 27), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (AD 54), Marc Levine (AD 10), Monique Limón (AD 37), Evan Low (AD 28), Kevin Mullin (AD 22), Al Muratsuchi (AD 66), Bill Quirk (AD 20), Anthony Rendon (AD 63), Eloise Gómez Reyes (AD 47), Luz Rivas (AD 39), Miguel Santiago (AD 53), Christy Smith (AD 38), Mark Stone (AD 29), Phil Ting (AD 19), Shirley Weber (AD 79), Buffy Wicks (AD 15) and Jim Wood (AD 2).
The senators who earned perfect scores on the report card are:
Jim Beall (Senate District 15), Lena Gonzalez (SD 33), Hannah-Beth Jackson (SD 19), Connie Leyva (SD 20), Mike McGuire (SD 02), Holly Mitchell (SD 30), Bill Monning (SD 17), Nancy Skinner (SD 09) and Henry Stern (SD 27).
Sierra Club California is the legislative and regulatory advocacy arm of the 13 Sierra Club chapters in California, representing more than 500,000 members and supporters statewide.