Members of the Climate Action Caucus are environmental champions fighting for bold policy change to address the climate crisis in Sacramento. These legislators deserve special recognition for their climate leadership.
Assemblymember Laura Friedman
Sustainability Steward
As the former Chair of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and newly appointed Chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee, she has been a critical backstop to ensuring that environmental laws are not weakened, is a strong proponent of sustainable land use, and never misses an opportunity to support bold climate action.
Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes
Public Health Protector
She is a consistent and bold advocate for strong air quality regulations and environmental justice. She was a leader in defending environmental and public health protections during the pandemic, at a time when polluters were asking to weaken or rollback regulations. She was recently appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly as the fourth woman and first ever Latina Assembly Majority Leader.
Senator Lena Gonzalez
New Legislator of the Year
In 2020, she supported bold climate bills to hold oil companies accountable for oil spills and to reduce plastic packaging waste. She was recently appointed to chair the Senate Transportation committee, making her a strong new leader amongst the climate champions in the legislature.
Assemblymember Ash Kalra
Nature Defender
He fought hard to pass AB 3030 to preserve biodiversity and access to nature. He currently chairs the Assembly Labor Committee, and is someone the environmental community can always count on to be the progressive leader and environmental champion that California needs.
Senator Holly Mitchell
Legacy Leader
From her work to ensure that underserved communities impacted by pollution had a voice at the table, her support for advancing California’s climate and clean energy leadership, and her work to hold oil companies accountable, she has been a strong ally for environmental health, climate, and justice, even in the face of deep-pocketed lobbying interests. She has raised the bar for intersectional environmental leadership in California. Members of the Polluter Caucus have prioritized fighting against protecting our future from the climate crisis through authoring anti-environmental bills or leading efforts to roll back our environmental and public health progress. These legislators do not represent voter’s priorities for climate action.
Assemblymember Jim Cooper
As one of the lowest scoring Democrats in the legislature, he publicly opposed climate policy, abstained from voting on important bills, refused to support updating fines for oil spills caused by oil companies, opposed establishing a minimum distance between homes and oil drilling, refused to support conserving land and waters to protect biodiversity, opposed reducing plastic waste, and more.
Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell
Not only did he support rollbacks and suspensions of important air quality and climate regulations from diesel trains, trucks, and ships in the midst of an air-borne pandemic, he also led legislative sign-on letters to encourage other legislators to join him in supporting these reckless environmental rollbacks.
Assemblymember Jim Frazier
He makes the Polluter Caucus for the second year in a row, due to having the lowest environmental score of any Democrat in the legislature. He scored even lower than some Republicans. He also led the calls for dangerous environmental and health rollbacks, using the pandemic to justify the state pausing the implementation and development of all air quality regulations.
Senator Shannon Grove
She led the Senate Republican caucus during a year when the caucus’s average environmental score was a mere 15%. She also obstructed votes on many bills during the last night of the legislative session, due to her disruptive filibustering.
The 2020 California State Legislature largely failed to take action on the climate crisis. Leadership in Sacramento lacked a clear vision or agenda on how to enact climate action. Democratic legislators even signed onto letters calling for rollbacks of environmental and air quality regulations, using the pandemic as an excuse to help polluting industries dismantle these critical protections. Luckily, there were a handful of elected officials in Sacramento who fought back against these exploitative calls for environmental rollbacks. Following this severely disappointing legislative session, Governor Newsom signed two major climate Executive Orders. Still, California’s position as a global climate leader remains in question, as Big Oil and other corporate interests continued to disproportionally influence state policy.
The 2020 November General Election’s climate-related results for California congressional and state legislative races were a mix of amazing and frustrating. There were notable key wins for climate candidates, especially in the California State Senate, where two anti-environment incumbents (Former Senators Ling Ling Chang and John Moorlach) were unseated by climate champions. Nationally, Kamala Harris became the nation's first Black, South Asian, female Vice President, and President Joe Biden was elected on a platform that included the most aggressive climate plan of any major party nominee before him. Leading up to the election, California Environmental Voters fought for policies to make voting easy and accessible, like mailing every registered voter a vote-by-mail ballot and maintaining safe in-person voting locations, leading to record high voter turnout. The voters of California have given the State Legislature and Governor a clear directive: prioritize environmental protections and bold climate action. California Environmental Voters is ready to hold them accountable to meeting that.
Since 1973, California Environmental Voters (formerly the California League of Conservation Voters or CLCV) has released our annual Environmental Scorecard, which rates the actions of the California State Legislature and the Governor on their environmental actions each legislative year. Through the Scorecard, we seek to accurately reflect the impact lawmakers have on addressing the climate crisis so voters can better understand how often their representatives in the State Legislature are voting for the environment.
We select the most significant environmental bills from the previous legislative session and track how every state legislator voted on each bill. Legislators' scores are shown as a percentage and are weighted to include each legislator’s own pro-environment committee votes and floor votes, their caucus’ average score (Assembly and Senate Democratic or Republican Caucus), and California’s overall score. Legislators who author a pro-environment Scorecard bill or a pro-environment letter are given extra points, and those who author an anti-environment Scorecard bill or anti-environment letter are given minus points.
The Governor is also given a score, which is weighted to include the signing or vetoing of pro-environment bills into law and California’s overall score. Extra points are included in the Governor’s score for pro-environment Executive Orders and actions.
There are times when legislators fight hard behind the scenes to stop damaging and hazardous policy or fight for bold and important policy. Similarly, there are times when legislators aligned with polluters’ efforts behind the scenes to weaken or kill environmental bills before they can even get a vote. Voting records alone do not tell that side of the story. The weighted scoring method used by the Environmental Scorecard shines a light on whether the legislature is authoring and moving policy that will significantly move the needle on the climate crisis and who is actually leading by authoring these bills. The Legislature and Governor need to measure success based on their ability to pass bold climate policy and the entire state’s success in taking the action needed right now to protect our future.
The Environmental Scorecard now includes an Oil Money Badge, which will be shown on the Scorecard page of every legislator who has accepted money directly from oil companies or from major oil company Political Action Committees (PACs) within the past six years. While direct contributions from oil companies and their major PACS is not the only way a legislator can receive funding from the oil industry, it is a helpful indicator as to who openly accepts oil company funding and who does not. It is imperative leaders reject the money and influence of this industry and hold them accountable for their role in creating the climate crisis.
HAS ACCEPTEDWhenever you see this image on a legislator’s Scorecard page, they have accepted money from oil companies.
This is where you come in. Find your legislator’s page and check out their environmental score and whether or not they have an Oil Money Badge. We encourage you to call the phone number listed on their page. Let them know what you think of their environmental score and why it matters to you that your legislator always votes for climate justice. These phone calls are recorded by staff and passed along to the legislator. Don’t underestimate your power as an individual. When the people of California make their voices heard by calling, writing and expressing their values and positions to elected leaders, our policies better reflect our state’s priorities.
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