Dear Nevadan,
Since 2003 the Nevada Conservation League (NCL) has been helping Nevadans see how well their legislators protect our climate, air, water, land, and communities. The Conservation Scorecard provides information about critical environmental legislation considered and votes taken during the 2021 Nevada legislative session.
While this legislative session was dominated by the COVID-19 crisis, our leaders continued to put public and environmental health at the forefront of their work. In fact, we saw quite a few “firsts.” Nevada became the first state in the nation to pass a legislative resolution in support of the global 30x30 initiative, which calls for conserving 30% of our nation’s lands and waters to maintain global biodiversity and defend against the climate crisis — proving that once again, Nevada is at the forefront of protecting our public lands. Nevada also became the first state in the country to ban and remove non-functional, non-residential turf. When the program is fully implemented in Southern Nevada, this policy will help save more than 9.5 billion gallons of water annually.
Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui set the tone for the 2021 Legislative Session with a giant leap forward for Nevada’s wildlife, introducing legislation to ensure future development across the state minimizes impacts on important wildlife habitat. In conjunction with an executive order by Governor Sisolak, Nevada has prioritized the protection of wildlife migration corridors and healthy habitat.
The 2021 Session was also the first opportunity to implement Governor Sisolak’s State Climate Strategy. Released in late 2020, the strategy is a roadmap to meeting carbon reduction goals in our state. To deliver on Governor Sisolak’s call to transition away from the use of fossil fuels in our homes and businesses, Assemblywoman Lesley Cohen introduced legislation to carefully assess future spending on gas systems. While the bill ultimately did not pass this session, Assemblywoman Cohen’s work and a very productive and eye opening committee hearing serves as a strong starting point to implement this critical component of our state’s overall strategy next legislative session.
We also made tremendous strides in cleaning our air of toxic pollutants. Thanks to the work of Assemblyman Howard Watts, we closed the Classic Vehicle smog loophole that allowed unhealthy air quality in some of our lowest income and minority communities. With the bill’s passage, not only are more cars tested for dangerous, cancer causing pollutants, but Nevada’s emissions fees will fund smog repair programs and low-income electric vehicle incentives in Clark and Washoe counties.
Finally, thanks to the efforts of Senator Chris Brooks, Nevada heavily invested in clean energy transmission, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and energy efficiency programs while prioritizing these investments in historically underserved communities — creating thousands of jobs in the fast-growing clean energy sector. All of these policies will help move Nevada closer to meeting our ambitious climate goals of 100 percent clean electricity and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
This legislative progress could not have been achieved without the passionate Nevadans who made their voices heard. Collaborating with environmental partner organizations, we hosted the first-ever virtual Conservation Lobby Week, providing Nevadans the opportunity to speak with their legislators about environmental legislation that matters to them most. That week, 145 Nevadans joined us in advocating for environmental policies and throughout the session, 960 people took action by contacting their elected officials on key conservation issues.
Even with these environmental victories, we still continue to face threats to our bedrock environmental laws on the horizon from the fossil fuel industry and anti-conservation politicians. We have seen this happen in other states and it will take vigilance from everyone that cares about our state to make sure that it doesn’t happen here - that we keep moving forward. NCL is fighting side by side with our partners at the state and national level to hold the line, but we need your help to make sure we win these fights.
Thank you for your support and thank you for checking out the 2021 Conservation Scorecard.
Best,
Paul Selberg
Executive Director
Nevada Conservation League