Healthy Communities In The News

By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer

POSTED: 06:16 p.m. EST, Jan 20, 2010

U.S. Reps. Betty Sutton, D-Copley Township, and John Boccieri, D-Alliance, both got 100 percent grades for their voting on 15 environmental and green-energy issues in a report card that Environment Ohio released Wednesday.

The eco-group gave U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, a 71 percent grade. U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, a Republican, got a zero.

Brown and Voinovich were rated on seven Senate votes on the environment and clean energy.

Also getting perfect scores in the Ohio delegation were Reps. Zack Space, D-Dover; Mary Jo Kilroy, D-Columbus; and Steve Driehaus, D-Cincinnati.

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, got 93 percent on votes over the past 18 months.

Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Bainbridge Township, got a 67 percent; Dennis Kucinich, D-Lakewood, received an 80 percent; and Marcia Fudge, D-Warrensville Heights, got an 83 percent.

Forty senators and 144 representatives got perfect scores.

In addition, 26 senators and 17 representatives got zeros.

The votes included legislation to protect the Great Lakes, to cap global warming gases, to block new offshore drilling and to invest $80 billion in clean energy and transportation.

The score card from Environment Ohio is available at http://www.environmentohio.org.