Maryland's lawmakers, arguably among the greenest in the nation, voted slightly greener this year than they did the year before, but still not enough for some environmentalists.

In its annual scorecard of votes on green issues in Annapolis, the Maryland League of Conservation Voters says members of the General Assembly improved their ratings slightly, with the House of Delegates siding with the greens 72 percent of the time and the Senate 62 percent.

League Executive Director Cindy Schwartz praised lawmakers in a statement for passage of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act, preservation of state funding for buying parkland and requiring new or replacement septic tanks in waterfront housing to be less polluting.  But other bills sought by environmentalists that were aimed at curbing sprawl and banning toxic chemicals failed.

In a switch from years past, the House has become fertile ground for green bills, Schwartz noted, while "the Senate is often where good environmental legislation either is weakened or killed altogether."  The House Environmental Matters Committee, with a succession of conservative leaders, had once been a Bermuda Triangle for green bills, but its current chair, Del. Maggie McIntosh of Baltimore, was among 57 delegates to get a 100 percent rating from the league.

Not unlike their counterparts in Washington, Maryland's Democratic state lawmakers voted green far more often than the Republican members.   Pols representing urban and solidly suburban constituents also leaned green more reliably than did rural lawmakers. 

The areas with the greenest delegations were Montgomery and Prince George's counties and Baltimore city.  Least green was the district spanning Frederick and Carroll counties, where the delegation voted for environmental bills just 16 percent of the time.  One delegate from that district, Republican Joseph Bartlett, got a perfect "0".

Go here to see how your elected representative voted on environmental issues.  Or if you'd rather not register with the league to see its detailed scorecard, you can get the highlights by downloading the press release.