ENVIRONMENTAL VOTING CAN MEAN MORE JOBS

Mature industries do not typically create large numbers of new jobs. Industries based on oil, gas, and coal--the "business-as-usual industries" in energy sector--are certainly not going to bolster our sagging job numbers, given that they're caught between twin hammers of dwindling fossil-fuel supplies and anti-pollution pressures.

But there is a good solution. According to analyses by The Apollo Alliance, embarking on an ambitious program to develop renewable energy will allow us to create three million new, high quality jobs, free ourselves from imported oil, and clean up environment. That certainly sounds a lot better than no new jobs and lots more black smoke in sky.

TOOLS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL VOTING

So, are you convinced that voting green also supports many of our other primary goals at ballot box? If so, best way to decide which candidate is most supportive of our environment is NOT to listen to what they say, but instead to look at their voting records. A good way to do that for national candidates is to review information at Project Vote Smart ( http://www.vote-smart.org/ ), which is an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to providing facts on voting records of candidates for US congress and other federal offices. They cover all issues, not just environment.

While Project Vote Smart is an incredible resource, if your main goal is to zero in on candidates' environmental records, you can do this more easily by letting League of Conservation Voters (LCV) be your guide. LCV's National Environmental Scorecard ( http://www.lcv.org/scorecard/scorecardmain.cfm ) analyzes and rates candidates' environmental voting records. If you want to keep it reeeaaaally simple, Scorecard has a single percentage number for each candidate to summarize how often candidate supported "environmental position." The higher number, greener candidate. And by way, LCV is a non-partisan organization--they endorse donkeys, elephants, and political animals of other stripes too.

Even though environment may not come up much in debates and TV ads, it is our air, our water, and our land. Keeping it clean is an important issue in its own right, but it plays a part in almost all other issues too. Vote green!

See Article at http://www.grinningplanet.com/vote/

*************** © 2004 by http://www.GrinningPlanet.com You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as bylines are included. Must be published complete with no changes. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

STATE-BY-STATE ENVIRONMENTAL VOTING GUIDES

What have YOUR elected local officials been doing to (or for) your state and county environmental agencies, and how have they voted on environmental issues in general? Did your state legislators fund widening of Porkbarrel Parkway while downsizing your state's Department of Natural Resources? Find out! Grinning Planet has compiled a list of best available environmental voting guides for all 50 US states. Find it at http://www.grinningplanet.com/vote/ , along with some other helpful voting tools.

Also, don't forget about your county elections. Many important issues, such as land use and recycling programs, are usually decided at county level. The state-level organizations we list sometimes feature links to related county or regional groups. You can also check with your local chapter of Sierra Club ( www.sierraclub.org ) to see if they have a county-level voting guide.

See Article at http://www.grinningplanet.com/vote/

*************** © 2004 by http://www.GrinningPlanet.com You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as bylines are included. Must be published complete with no changes. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.