The Virginia League of Conservation Voters has given the General Assembly much higher scores for votes on environmental issues in 2006 than it did the year before. The House garnered a 56 percent rating this year, up from 40 percent in 2005. The Senate scored 54 percent, up from 42 percent.
The scores measured floor votes on conservation issues including the land preservation tax credit, the Virginia Energy Plan, air emissions controls, billboard vegetation control, water protection permits, construction of an I-95 alternative, and impact fees for transportation. “Extra credit” was also issued to legislators who patroned conservation-friendly bills that VALCV supported.
For details on the Conservation Scorecard, click here.
Just one question: A bill on “billboard vegetation control”?
Yes indeedy, the bill, which passed, grants VDOT “the authority to impose on a billboard company requesting approval of a vegetation control permit, the obligation to relocate or replant vegetation according to a landscaping plan approved by VDOT, at the sole cost of the billboard company.” The VALCV was against it:
This legislation arose from a situation in Virginia Beach in which a billboard owner applied to VDOT for a permit to cut down crape myrtles in the median of Virginia Beach Boulevard. The permit was rejected because the roads are city-maintained and not within VDOT’s jurisdiction.
I can’t tell from this explanation what the League was opposed to. But what the heck? Who could possibly support the cutting down of crape myrtles — especially when the alternative is looking at billboards?
