Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee Chairman Mary Jo White (R-Venango) issued the following response to the "environmental scorecard" recently released by PennEnvironment.

"Unfortunately, scorecards from environmental groups have too often been utilized to portray as 'anti-environmental' legislators targeted by the group," said Sen. White. “Votes are apparently selected to ensure that only select legislators are portrayed favorably. To achieve this, many votes on critical environmental legislation are omitted. The result is a terribly misleading document."

The scorecard excludes the following environmental bills approved by the Senate:

· Special Session Senate Bill 1 (MJ White-R-Venango) -- Invests $650 million in alternative energy investment;

· Senate Bill 2 (Earl-R-Erie) -- Invests $800 million in water, wastewater, dam and flood projects, signed into law as Act 62 by Gov. Rendell;

· Senate Bill 266 (Erickson-R-Delaware)-- Climate Change Action Plan (a priority of PennEnvironment), signed into law by Gov. Rendell as Act 70;

· Senate Bill 356 (MJ White-R-Venango) -- Creating Center for Environmental Education in statute, signed into law as Act 71 by Gov. Rendell;

· Senate Bill 949 (Kasunic-D-Somerset) -- Comprehensive mine safety update, signed into law as Act 55 by Gov. Rendell;

· Senate Bill 1100 (Pileggi-R-Delaware) -- Extended funding for Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act, signed into law by Gov. Rendell as Act 77;

· Senate Bill 1330 (D.White-R-Indiana) -- Coalbed Methane Dispute Resolution – additional protections for landowners;

· Senate Bill 1341 (Musto-D-Luzerne) -- Authorizes referendum for $400 million in PENNVEST grants and loans, signed into law by Act 64 by Gov. Rendell;

· House Bill 1203 (Hornaman-D-Erie) -- Clarifies the solar share obligation of utilities under the AEPS act, signed into law as Act 35 by Gov. Rendell;

· House Bill 1281 (Freeman-D-Lehigh) -- Protects Appalachian Trail (priority on PennEnvironment's website), signed into law by Gov. Rendell as Act 24; and

· House Bill 1705 (Harkins-D-Erie) -- Great Lakes Compact (priority on PennEnvironment's website), Gov. Rendell signed into law as Act 43.

The scorecard includes the following votes:

· Special Session House Bill 1 (DePasquale-D-York) -- House members were given credit for passage of the Alternative Energy Investment Act, signed into law by Gov. Rendell as Special Session Act 1; Senate members were excluded despite passing both Special Session House Bill 1 and Special Session Senate Bill 1;

· House Bill 1590 (Markosek-D-Allegheny) -- Authorizes tolling of Interstate 80. Opposing tolling was regarded as "anti-environmental," signed into law by Gov. Rendell as Act 44; and

· Cabinet nominees – to our knowledge, votes on cabinet nominees under Republican governors have never been included, according to Sen. White.

The Environmental Scorecard is available on the PennEnvironment website.

7/25/2008