The National Caucus of Environmental Legislators (NCEL) presented Washington State Senator Christine Rolfes with the Leon G. Billings Environmental Achievement Award. The award was announced at NCEL’s seventh annual National Forum, which took place online August 6-7. The forum had 200 attendees from 39 states.
“It is an honor to receive this prestigious award,” Senator Rolfes said, “Washington state is a place of spectacular natural beauty. I’ll never stop working to ensure we protect and preserve our environment for generations to come.”
NCEL annually presents its Environmental Achievement Award to state legislators in recognition of their outstanding accomplishments on environmental issues. Criteria includes bipartisan support for awardee’s legislation and the impact of policies that they passed.
Senator Rolfes was selected for the award by the NCEL Board of Directors, which is comprised of a majority of sitting state legislators. She is recognized for her leadership on coastal protections, working to ban toxic chemicals, prevent plastic pollution, and her conservation efforts to protect Orca whales, among many other achievements on conservation and the environment.
NCEL Executive Director Jeff Mauk highlighted the role that Senator Rolfes has as a leader within the Caucus.
“As a longtime leader within the NCEL network, Senator Rolfes embodies the mission of NCEL,” said Mauk. “She is a highly effective legislator, with a passion for environmental issues, who is eager to share and discuss policies and lessons learned with colleagues across the country. Senator Rolfes is a key member of NCEL.”
The NCEL Board of Directors named the Environmental Achievement Award as a memorial to the organization’s founder, former Maryland Delegate Leon G. Billings, who first organized NCEL in 1996. Billings is also widely known as the U.S. Senate staffer responsible for writing the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act in the 1970s.
Created by and for state legislators, the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that organizes over 1,000 environmentally-committed state legislators from all 50 states and both parties. NCEL provides venues and opportunities for lawmakers to share ideas and collaborate on environmental issues.
