What is the Scorecard?

What It Is:

Since 1973, we’ve released the California Environmental Scorecard every year to keep EnviroVoters like you up-to-date on the climate actions of California’s legislature and leadership (Governor, Speaker, and Pro-Tem).  

Throughout the year, we track all of the environment-related bills that are introduced in the California state legislature and keep tabs on every action taken by legislators during the legislative session—bills they authored, how they voted, and if they took oil money. At the end of the year, we use these records to put together an accurate, data-based report on California’s climate actions for both individual representatives and the state as a whole.  

This year, we tracked the outcome of 129 total environmental bills, 10 major pro-environmental actions, and two major anti-environmental actions to determine California’s overall score. (You can read more about how scoring works here.)

And we’ve put together a page for every state legislator in both the California Senate and Assembly: tracking their authorship, votes on environmental bills, and whether they’ve taken oil money to give you the clearest possible picture of their climate work.

Why We Do It:

Actions speak louder than words. The Scorecard was built to collect all the metrics voters need (legislators’ voting records, bill introductions, and state-level actions, and more) so you can monitor your representatives’ actions and hold them accountable.

The Scorecard lights a fire under legislators to do better on climate action. Every year, they keep a close eye on their grade, knowing that it’s widely used as a resource by voters, news organizations, and campaign donors. And we know this because they tell us—reaching out to ask EnviroVoters what the top priority climate bills are, sharing that their constituents have mentioned the Scorecard to them, and proudly displaying 100% grades on their doors in the Sacramento capital.

Use the Scorecard to hold your leaders accountable for the promises they make on the campaign trail. As representatives, legislators have a responsibility to reflect the priorities and values of the people they serve—and the Scorecard tracks every action they take, giving voters like you a place to find easy-to-read data on their environmental policy.

How To Use It:

The Scorecard isn’t just an education tool; it’s a tool for action. Take a moment to check out your representatives’ grades and find out if they’re leading the charge on climate action—or holding us back.

We’ve included tools to make it easy for you to find your legislators, review their scores, and contact them directly from the Scorecard website. 

On the homepage of the 2024 Scorecard, the first thing you’ll see is our map, where you can type in your address to find your State Senator and Assembly representative. From there, you can open each of their pages to see their overall score, any committees they’ve chaired, whether or not they’ve taken oil money, and their voting history on environmental bills.

Then, give your legislators a call or email using the contact buttons at the top of the page and let them know what you think of the grade they earned in 2024! As their constituent, you have the power to hold your representatives accountable for making climate progress on your behalf.