Colorado lawmakers voted with the pro-environmental group Colorado Conservation Voters more than 88 percent of the time during the legislative session, the group’s ratings of lawmakers released Monday shows.
The group ranked all 100 lawmakers based on their support of 13 bills that promoted higher energy and water-use standards, green jobs and other conservation policies.
But some Republicans questioned the grading criteria, pointing out that a bill touted as one of the most important environmental protection bills in the past four years — a move to convert coal-fired power plants to natural gas — was excluded from the survey despite hefty bipartisan support.
In total, 51 Democrats who voted for all 13 bills scored the highest marks on the scorecard. Six Republicans scored a 50 percent or higher, with Sen. Ken Kester of Las Animas scoring the highest at 70 percent.
“We passed 34 pro-conservation bills. We chose bills that we thought would have the highest impact (environmentally) and from a pro-economy standpoint as well,” said Pete Maysmith, executive director of Colorado Conservation Voters.
He touted several bills that made Colorado “best in the West,” such as the new law increasing the amount of energy that major utilities must generate from renewable sources and another requiring uranium companies to clean up pollution before expanding operations.
But CCV’s list also included less-prominent laws, such as rules requiring drivers to slow down in wildlife-crossing areas, requiring electric utility co-ops to publish meeting schedules and minutes, and a law updating plumbing guidelines to include water-efficient fixtures.
One of the lowest scores at just 8 percent was Rep. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs, who said he should have gotten credit for regularly supporting forest-health bills and taking a political risk by supporting the hugely controversial House Bill 1365, which requires Xcel to switch three Front Range power plants from coal to natural gas.
Twenty other Republicans’ scores would also be higher had the power plant bill been included. And five Democrats — Reps. Dennis Apuan and John Soper, and Sens. Paula Sandoval , Abel Tapia and Lois Tochtrop — would have seen their perfect scores tarnished had the legislation counted.
“I’m not there to level forests and shoot Bambi,” Liston said. “I put my neck out there on a conservation bill — the biggest one — and they don’t give me credit for it. It almost makes me think that they were cherry-picking.”
Maysmith said that some members of the panel that edits the scorecard came from organizations that remained neutral on HB 1365, and so it was not included.
“Out of respect for the process, we didn’t score it and chose instead to offer it a prominent placement and full write-up on the scorecard,” Mayfield said. “I’m happy to recognize and thank Republicans for their vote on that — and Democrats as well, of course.”
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
