FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 14, 2004

For more information contact: Anne Ambler, 301-946-5599

Montgomery County Group

103 North Adams Street

Rockville, Maryland 20850

Sierra Club Rates Six of Nine County Council Members

Unsatisfactory on Environment

The Sierra Club’s first environmental scorecard for the current Montgomery County Council, released to the public today, reveals a veritable chasm between the excellent to outstanding scores of Councilmembers Perez (80%), Praisner (86%), and Andrews (100%) and those of the other Council members, whose scores range from 53% (Councilmembers Silverman and Leventhal) to a low of 33% (Councilmember Floreen).

The Sierra Club scored 15 votes with significant environmental implications. These votes determine the County’s direction on transportation, indoor air quality, energy, growth policy (including schools), and water and forest conservation.

Accountability needed

“The Sierra Club feels very strongly that elected officials must be held accountable for their votes. Each individual yea or nay reflected that Council member’s vision for our future, and each majority vote set the county’s course, usually with irreversible consequences for us, our children, and our grandchildren,” said Anne Ambler, Chair of the Montgomery County Group. “Cool forests that fall to hot roads and rooftops do not grow back.”

View on growth is key

The scorecard shows that widely different views on rate and quality of growth account for the chasm between high and low scores. High scorers demonstrate commitment to the long-term protection of the county’s green infrastructure through reasonable controls on growth. Low scorers appear committed to rapid growth, whatever the cost, aggravation, and environmental loss to be borne by county residents.

“It is ironic,” commented Steve Caflisch, Maryland Chapter Transportation Chair, “that the group of Council members who campaigned on an “end gridlock” platform have through their votes on the Annual Growth Policy basically removed adequate public facilities controls and decreased the portion of infrastructure costs borne by new development, leaving it to taxpayers. The result will be congested roads and schools and increased pressure on our remaining green space.”

Good marks on indoor air quality and energy

A bright spot on the scorecard is the near consensus on cleaning up indoor air quality and on greening and conserving the county’s energy. “We commend the Council on these votes and hope they are an opening to broader environmental awareness,” said Ambler.

Audubon Naturalist Society Endorses

The scorecard received the endorsement of the Audubon Naturalist Society. “The Sierra Club deserves a great deal of credit for keeping track of County Council votes on the environment,” said Dolores Milmoe, Conservation Director. “We know that Montgomery County citizens have a great interest in the health and quality of the environment and often not enough time to closely follow the issues. The Sierra Club scorecard does this for them in an accurate and fair analysis. We would urge the six councilmembers who have ‘unsatisfactory’ ratings to step up to the plate and follow through on their campaign promises to protect the environment."

Next scorecard

The Sierra Club continues to track environmental votes and will publish another scorecard including votes taken after March 16, 2004, date of the last vote on this scorecard. The next scorecard will include critical votes on Bill 29-03, which exempts equestrian facilities in agricultural zones from forest conservation law (scheduled for June 15), and on the Strategic Plan for Economic Development, which sets growth targets that ensure skyrocketing housing costs, an increasingly nonresident workforce, and mounting pressure to convert farms and forests to houses and shopping malls.

Wisdom from the perspective of space

“Before I flew I was already aware of how small and vulnerable our planet is; but only when I saw it from space, in all its ineffable beauty and fragility, did I realize that humankind’s most urgent task is to cherish and preserve it for future generations.”

--Sigmund Jahn, German Democratic Republic astronaut

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E-mail copies of the Sierra Club’s County Council Scorecard and notes are available

to the public from anneambler@comcast.net.

The Sierra Club’s purpose is “to explore, enjoy and protect the wild places of the Earth; to practice and promote the responsible use of the Earth’s ecosystems and resources; to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.”