Our state senator, Ellen Roberts, recently wrote a column in response to her ratings by outreach groups who examined her voting record from this past legislative session.
She discussed some of the challenges of being a legislator, and defended herself against low scores from some of these advocacy groups by pointing out that instead of trying to satisfy their “partisan” demands, she aims to represent the people of her district.
However, the denigration of these groups – which do the important research into legislators’ voting records – detracts from the issue at hand: Roberts’ voting record on environmental policy has been declining over the past years.
When Roberts first came into the state senate in 2010, groups such as Conservation Colorado endorsed her for her stand on conservation issues. In her second term, they promoted her as a conservation champion given that she supported 80 percent of conservation policies.
However, as she has become part of her party’s leadership, she’s moved concertedly to the right. Most notably, this year Roberts and her colleagues organized a political move to defund the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment, which among other things would shut down all of our air quality monitoring and protections and cut almost 100 jobs across the state.
She also voted in favor of the controversial land seizure bill (for the second year in a row) that’s backed by stakeholders who want to privatize our public lands. The community of Southwest Colorado thrives on the use of our public lands and waters; the health of and access to these places are a large part of why many of us live here.
This makes me question why Senator Roberts has strayed from conservation while our area has become increasingly concerned with issues like the methane cloud, protections for our public lands and the Animas River spill. Is she actually representing the people of her district, as she stated, or the interests of her party?
Regardless, we want and deserve leaders in both parties that are going to work to protect our families, livelihoods, and our local environment.
Dominique Edgerly
Durango
