STATEMENT OF STEPHEN SMITH, LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE CHAIR OF THE ARKANSAS CHAPTER OF THE SIERRA CLUB UPON RELEASE OF THE 2007 ARKANSAS LEGISLATIVE REPORT CARD

 

As the federal government retreats further every day from our nation's environmental laws, actions at the state and local level are increasingly important to protect the health and safety of our families. Yet, candidates for elected office in Arkansas often are not asked by the public or the news media to articulate their positions on environmental issues, and many who are contacted by the Sierra Club do not bother to return the candidate questionnaires that we invite them to answer.

Arkansas citizens are concerned with environmental issues, but too often what happens at the State Capitol is either unclear or too distant from their everyday lives. Constituents have a right to know how their elected officials are voting on issues that impact Arkansas’s environment.  We hope this Report Card will serve as a useful tool to judge how well their views are being represented by their lawmakers.

This legislative Report Card provides non-partisan, objective information about how each Arkansas legislator voted on a wide range of 16 environmental issues during the 2005 regular session. You now have a way to find out if your legislators are in step with your environmental values, or if they represent other interests.

Arkansas needs leaders who value our incredible natural heritage.   We all recognize that conservation and environmental protection are vital to our well being and economic prosperity. Between preserving the way of life we treasure, serving as a magnet for new businesses, creating jobs to clean up some of our past mistakes, and pointing the way to sustainable development, there is no question that environmental protection makes economic common sense as well as wise public policy.

 

The Arkansas Chapter of the Sierra Club is committed to making the environment a priority in the state political agenda. Through our Legislative Committee and our professional staff, we try to ensure that our legislators are informed of our positions on environmental legislation, that environmental issues are seriously considered by our elected officials, and that Arkansas citizens are aware of the critical environmental decisions made by their legislators. The citizens of Arkansas are overwhelmingly in favor of clean air and water and an otherwise healthy environment. The Report Card is the most comprehensive way for the electorate to see if they are being properly represented by their legislators.

Of course, Report Cards often have a tendency to paint things as black and white, when we all know there is a great deal of gray in the policy making process. However, to be fair, our analysis can only include recorded votes taken by the full House or Senate, which means many of the ‘gray areas’ such as the positive activities that occur in committee are not recorded.  A good example from 2005 is the important vote by the House Committee on City, County, and Local Affairs that gave a “do not pass” recommendation to Senate Bill 230, legislation that would have threatened clean drinking water in central Arkansas. 

It is important to recognize that this scorecard is just one test of a legislator's environmental record and reflects only one component of a legislator's overall environmental commitment.  Factors such as leadership and vision, behind-the-scenes activity or inactivity, or local political and economic considerations by a legislator are not easily quantifiable on a chart.

The Arkansas Chapter of the Sierra Club appreciates the work done by many of our legislative supporters to get good environmental legislation drafted or out of committee, but, ultimately, it is the floor vote that determines whether our state laws will protect or harm our precious natural resources.

We hope you will use this Environmental Report Card to evaluate your Representative’s and Senator’s commitment to the environmental issues about which you care. The Report Card provides enough for you to contact your legislators to thank them for their pro-environmental votes and to ask for explanations about their anti-environmental votes.   When you communicate with your legislator and hold them accountable, you are preserving the democratic process and our environment for generations to come.

The Arkansas Chapter of the Sierra Club wishes to thank those elected officials who have shown leadership on legislation that would protect, preserve, and enhance our state’s unique natural heritage. We also thank those of you who contacted your legislators and came to Little Rock to support environmental legislation during the 2005 session.

 

The important environmental issues aren't going away, and neither are we. The efforts by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups to protect the public health of Arkansans and the environment of our state goes on. One legislative committee is conducting an Interim Study of legislation for a bottle deposit bill, and we are already working on our legislative agenda and drafting environmental bills for the 2007 session.

 

Our state legislators need to know we are following their votes, that we deeply care about environmental issues, and that they should, too. We hope that by providing additional information on environmental issues and voting records, it will make a crucial difference in whom our members support and how our legislators vote in the future.