Sierra Club Gives 2008 Legislature Good Marks

Apr 14, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) Utah's environment fared unusually well this year with state lawmakers, according to the Sierra Club's 2008 Legislative Scorecard released last week. State Chapter Manager Mark Clemens says he might just break out the champagne.

"We've had good years like this so few times in the past, but it really seems as though it was a banner year for the environment," Clemens says. "We had several excellent bills pass. And we had 10 perfect scores in the House of Representatives, and four 100-percent scores in the Utah Senate."

Issues that fared best this year were clean air and water quality issues. Clemens says some of these were simple steps that will make a big difference, such as Representative Chris Johnson's bill to limit the amount of phosphorous in dishwashing detergent. Clemens says this will greatly improve water quality in the state's rivers. Also, he commended Representative Roz McGee's effort to extend a tax credit for clean and efficient fuel vehicles. Next year, Clemens says Utahns can expect more of the same from the environmental group.

"We are going to continue to push energy efficiency. And we would like to see even more efforts to improve the mileage on our vehicles to cut down on air emissions. And we would also like to see more acquisition of open space," Clemens says.

A link to the Sierra Club 2008 Legislative Scorecard is available here.

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