Friday morning, Tennessee Conservation Voters recognized state lawmakers for their environmental stance during what the group is calling a “surprisingly successful year.”
The organization’s leadership admits to having been scared at the start of the legislative session. An unusually high number of bills had been filed that they considered damaging to the environment. Ultimately, many of those either died in committee or were deferred until next year. At the same time, several measures that they considered key became law, such as new requirements for coal ash disposal and limits on rock harvesting.
The group singled out Rep. Mike McDonald as being “the indisputable environmental voice of this session.”
“It’s all about who we are as a people, and if we can’t protect our air and our water and our precious resources for future generations, what kind of people are we? What kind of legislature are we?”
The Portland Democrat lead the fight against a bill that would have made it easier for mining operations to dump a byproduct called selenium into streams.
McDonald also sponsored a bill to ban mountaintop removal mining in Tennessee. He and the other sponsors of that measure- Republican Representative Bill Dunn, Democratic Senator Doug Jackson and Republican Senator Bill Ketron-will receive the Conservation Voter’s first-ever “Good Green Deeds” award, meant to recognize lawmakers who take a politically difficult stand for the environment.
The group’s annual scorecard tallies legislators’ actions on bills with environmental consequences. You can find a link to the entire scorecard on our website, wpln.org/news.
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