Environmental protection isn’t always at the top of the priority list for politicians in the Nevada Legislature.

However, a new report card probing the 2025 session offers a view into how assemblymembers and senators voted on key environmental issues. The scorecard was released Friday by the Nevada Conservation League, a longstanding statewide advocacy organization with a large presence in Carson City each session.

It focuses on voting records for 17 bills and one resolution, ranging from a law that requires major cities to address extreme heat in master planning to another that mandates NV Energy and Southwest Gas to report energy shutoff data.

“It’s important to use the scorecard not as a stopping point, but as a progress report,” said Christi Cabrera-Georgeson, the organization’s deputy director, in a statement. “While we celebrate the leadership and progress made this legislative session, we must also continue to hold our decision-makers accountable and pursue further action to ensure Nevada remains at the forefront of environmental progress.”

How did your legislator do?

Within the results, a noticeable partisan and geographical divide exists.

Republicans were consistently ranked lower than Democrats, especially in the Assembly, where all 15 Republicans had lower scores than the 26 Democrats. Rural Nevada representatives scored lower than those who represented the Reno and Las Vegas urban cores, earning a regional summary score of 55 percent.

Tying for the lowest score of any member of the Legislature are Assemblymembers Ken Gray, R-Dayton, and Gregory Hafen, R-Pahrump, as well as Sen. John Ellison, R-Eureka. They all received a 43 percent score.

Gray, who was tapped this year to serve as senior adviser to the National Cemetery Administration at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and left his Assembly seat, declined an interview. Hafen didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Ellison said he found the scoring to be unfair, especially considering the partisan nature of how scores ended up. Ellison said he first thinks of his rural constituents, many of whom rely on farms and ranches — and the water to run them — for their livelihoods.

“I look at every bill on its own merit. I don’t care who wrote it or why they wrote it,” Ellison said. “It’s not an issue of D or R.”

Big-ticket bills that all three rejected were ones that required municipal extreme heat planning, proposed the designation of Indigenous Peoples Day on what has historically been Columbus Day, and allowed multifamily affordable housing to benefit from rooftop solar.

Others included a bill to direct Nevada business regulators to develop protocols for wildfire smoke and a bill to require utility reporting of energy shutoffs.

The two Republican legislators whom the conservation league spotlighted positively were Assemblymember Toby Yurek, R-Henderson, with an 83 percent score, and Sen. Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, who received a 74 percent score.

Yurek sponsored a bill that the governor signed to increase the allowed amount of water for wildlife guzzlers that are lifelines for populations of bighorn sheep, for instance, during drought periods. Hansen was the sponsor of another successful environmental bill that requires water pollution incidents to be reported to state regulators and Native American tribes.

Six Democratic assemblymembers received perfect scores: Natha Anderson of Sparks; Heather Goulding and Selena La Rue Hatch, both of Reno; Cinthia Zermeño Moore of North Las Vegas; and David Orentlicher and Howard Watts, both of Las Vegas.

Lombardo gets a C+

In addition to scoring legislators, the organization weighed in on Gov. Joe Lombardo’s performance.

The Republican governor is up for re-election in 2026, currently running against two Democrats, Attorney General Aaron Ford and Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis Hill.

The conservation league gave Lombardo a C+, saying he has a “mixed record on environmental issues.”

“He and his administration have taken some positive steps, particularly in their support of the state’s clean energy economy, but they have also opposed public land protections and promoted polluting, out-of-state fossil fuels,” the report says. “While we have seen improvement from Governor Lombardo and his administration over the last two years, there is room for growth.”

In a statement, Lombardo spokesman Josh Meny said the governor has supported clean energy development and reaffirmed the Shared Stewardship Agreement to reduce wildfire risks, all while investing in outdoor recreation and conservation efforts. The governor’s goal has been to “balance responsible resource management with economic growth and energy security,” Meny said in a statement.

“While some groups may focus on singular perspectives, Governor Lombardo’s responsibility is to consider the interests of all Nevadans and pursue practical, balanced solutions that safeguard our natural resources and strengthen our economy,” Meny said.

Last year, Lombardo released a plan to address human-caused climate change — somewhat of a rarity among Republican governors, some of whom have denied or downplayed well-established climate science.

However, it came after he scrapped his Democratic predecessor’s plan, which featured specific carbon emission reduction targets and was born out of public input sessions held throughout the state. Lombardo’s was more vague and didn’t involve consultation with everyday Nevadans, the conservation league argues.

Another action Lombardo took that the conservation league praised was sending Interior Secretary Doug Burgum a letter that raised concerns about on-the-ground effects of a secretarial order that is hampering Nevada’s utility-scale solar energy boom.

Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.