With Morse named to "Dirty Dozen" list, Rayfield is the clear choice for voters

Today, Oregon State Senator Frank Morse, who represents Albany and Corvallis, made the national League of Conservation Voters’ inaugural state-level “Dirty Dozen” list, a list of 12 of the most anti-environment candidates in the country running for state office. Senator Morse won out over hundreds of candidates submitted from state leagues across the country.

Environmental values run deep in Morse's district--In fact, Benton County was the only county where a majority of voters voted against Measure 37 in 2004. Morse's constituents need to know how far off he is from representing their values when he casts his anti-environment votes. And voters need to know there is a better choice.

That's why the Oregon League of Conservation Voters is working hard to help elect his opponent, Dan Rayfield, who will fight to protect Oregon's unique quality of life. Dan is committed to protecting our region’s precious natural resources, and holding polluters accountable for the damage they cause to our air and water. He will work to clean up the Willamette River so our drinking water will be safe and free of toxic chemicals. The choice has never been clearer.

Senator Morse’s tenure in the legislature began with a bang when he voted against every single environmental bill and received a 0% on the OLCV Environmental Scorecard in 2003.  In the 2010 special session, he voted against all three of the Oregon Conservation Network's legislative priorities.  He has never cast the deciding vote for an environmental bill, but has padded his record by voting for bills that already had enough votes to pass. Overall, Frank Morse votes against the environment 3 out of every 4 votes.

Here are some highlights of Morse's anti-environment track record:

• He has twice voted against extending the moratorium on off-shore drilling off of Oregon’s coast, including the one that just passed in February
• He voted against increasing the maximum penalty for most environmental pollution violations from $10K to $25K
• He voted against a ban on the use of the toxic chemical BPA in sippy cups and baby bottles (in February)
• He voted against funding Oregon’s Pesticide Use Reporting System two sessions in a row
• He voted to increase logging to unsustainable levels in the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests every time it has come up for a vote
• He voted for a ridiculous bill that would have prohibited DEQ from adopting clean car emissions standards and would have eliminated funding for the Governor’s Willamette River cleanup (even though the Willamette runs through his district)
• He voted against the first step taken by the legislature toward addressing our greenhouse gas emissions by establishing the goal that by 2050 Oregon would reduce our greenhouse gas levels to at least 25% below our 1990 levels
• He voted against the strong majority by rejecting setting Oregon’s Renewable Portfolio Standard to 25% by 2025
• Although he touts fly-fishing as one of his passions, he twice voted against protecting the “Wild and Scenic” Metolius River from a damaging resort development
• He voted against sending Ballot Measure 49 to the voters to fix the nightmare caused by the passage of Ballot Measure 37 which gutted Oregon’s famed land use system and threatened thousands of acres of farm and forestland with unchecked development and which eventually was passed by 62% of Oregon voters
• He voted against the bill that created the process for designating urban and rural reserves in areas with urban growth boundaries which was supported by both land use and construction interests to provide more predictability for both farmers and for developers while providing greater protections for lands important for agriculture, forestry or fish and wildlife
• He voted against a bill to update building codes to increase energy efficiency and reduce energy waste from buildings by 10-25%
• He voted against limiting utilities’ abilities to build more coal-fired power plants or by entering long term contracts with them
• He voted for a bill which would have undermined Oregon’s RPS which would have significantly cut the amount of new renewable energy required by counting old biomass facilities as new resources
• He voted against setting up an emergency response fund to react quickly to outbreaks of invasive species
• He voted against the bill that would have limited destination resorts to areas that have adequate water supplies and ensure they were for vacationers only and not rural subdivisions masquerading as resorts
• He voted against the scaling back of field burning of grass seed crops which severely impacts the air quality in his district every fall
• He voted against requiring schools to reduce the use of pesticides in and around schools     
• He voted against approving DEQ’s budget in 2009

Help elect Dan Rayfield! Look for an event near you at www.olcv.org/events and get involved!

Check out the full list of OLCV-endorsed candidates here.