Sierra Club Scores!

by CalWatchdog Staff | October 5, 2010 8:21 am

Anthony Pignataro:

At long last, today Sierra Club California[1] released its highly anticipated California Legislature 2010 Report Card[2]. Finally, you get to see what the state’s biggest environmental organization thinks about our elected servants.

“Just as doctors take an oath to ‘do no harm,’ our top priority is to prevent any weakening in California’s environmental laws,” state’s the report card’s introduction. “This year, big oil companies and other special interests are trying to use the recession as an excuse to roll back key protections and stop any progress in greening our economy.”

The fact that the Sierra Club denounces “special interests” while ignoring the fact that it, in itself, constitutes a “special interest” ought to tip you off that what follows is going to be pretty much predictable. Is anyone really surprised that Democratic Senators Darrell Steinberg[3], Gil Cedillo[4], Mark Desaulnier[5] and Alan Lowenthal[6] all received 100 percent scores? Or that Repubican Senators Sam Aanestad[7], Jeff Denham[8], George Runner[9] and Mimi Walters[10] all bottomed out at zero percent? Of course, given the partisan nature of modern environmentalist, every single one of the the legislators just mentioned is proud of his or her score, so I guess everyone wins.

Everyone, that is, except our beloved Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger[11]. Considering how ambiguous he’s been as our state’s chief executive, it’s only natural that the Sierra Club awarded him an ambiguous score: 50 percent.

“This mixed record is typical of Schwarzenegger’s 7 years in office,” the Sierra Club noted. “His administration has made genuine progress on some environmental fronts, but has often sided with big business in opposing vital legislation to safeguard our air, water, health and natural resources, and at times has even supported weakening of existing protections. He has accomplished more for our environment than we expected when he first announced his gubernatorial run in 2003, but has not been as consistently green as his reputation in the national media would suggest.”

OCT. 5, 2010

Endnotes:
  1. Sierra Club California: http://www.sierraclubcalifornia.org/
  2. Report Card: http://www.sierraclubcalifornia.org/scorecard%20Files/2010%20Report%20Card.pdf
  3. Darrell Steinberg: http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Darrell_Steinberg
  4. Gil Cedillo: http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Gilbert_Cedillo
  5. Mark Desaulnier: http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Mark_DeSaulnier
  6. Alan Lowenthal: http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Alan_Lowenthal
  7. Sam Aanestad: http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Sam_Aanestad
  8. Jeff Denham: http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Jeff_Denham
  9. George Runner: http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/George_Runner
  10. Mimi Walters: http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Mimi_Walters
  11. Arnold Schwarzenegger: http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Arnold_Schwarzenegger

Source URL: https://calwatchdog.com/2010/10/05/sierra-club-scores/

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