Philadelphia - PennEnvironment, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit, publicized its environmental scoring of Harrisburg legislators' voting records yesterday.

Representatives of the group gathered at City Hall with six area legislators who had received perfect 100-percent ratings, celebrating major alternative energy subsidies and other legislation passed during this two-year session.

Measures that PennEnvironment identified as high priority included a bill providing $414 million for public transportation; protections for local open-space ordinances against procedural challenges; subsidies to companies producing alternative sources of energy; and the reappointment of Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty.

Area legislators who voted in agreement with PennEnvironment for all of the current General Assembly session include:

* Rep. Babette Josephs, D-182nd, of Philadelphia
* Rep. Daylin Leach, D-149th, of Montgomery County;
* Rep. Bryan Lentz, D-161st, of Delaware County
* Rep. James Roebuck, D-188th, of Philadelphia
* Rep. Rick Taylor, D-151st, of Montgomery County
* Rep. Greg Vitali, D-166th , of Delaware County

"Time and again, these representatives put the environment ahead of powerful interests in Harrisburg," PennEnvironment spokesman David Masur said.

These representatives from the Delaware Valley comprised half of all the General Assembly members with the highest possible PennEnvironment scores. The average score among state House of Representatives members was 62 percent, while members of the Senate averaged a 50-percent score.

Mr. Masur identified Rep. John Perzel, R-172nd, of Philadelphia, the former House speaker, as the lowest-scoring member in the region, with what it called a "dismal" 29 percent.

Randal O'Toole, a planning expert at the Washington, D.C.-based Cato Institute, said although environmental groups tout the expected benefits from these efforts, residents should also anticipate some unintended costs. He said, for example, that legislators in urban areas have particularly little to gain by supporting conservation easements and zones to preserve undeveloped lands.

"If you look at the kinds of problems people in cities face, they include congestion, quality of schools, housing affordability, transportation problems," he said. "Open space isn't really high on the list."

Mr. O'Toole attributed the recent housing bubble and subsequent crash to open-space preservation measures that he says have made housing less affordable. Because zoning rules aren't as stringent in Texas, he said, the market remained stable there.

Legislators present at City Hall also strongly stressed the advantages they believe will develop from expanded public transit. Mr. Leach said that while most of the area population commutes via automobile, gas prices could entice more residents to use rail systems.

"I think we've received a big unintended assist" from higher gas prices, he said, recalling filling his car's tank with $4.35-per-gallon gasoline last weekend.

Mr. Lentz said SEPTA's rail system has reported an increase in the number of riders this year, indicating a heightened willingness on the part of residents to use more public transit.

But Mr. O'Toole views that notion skeptically. The American Public Transportation Association has noticed more people around the country are using rail lines, with urban driving in the first quarter of 2008 at about 15 billion miles less than in the first quarter of 2007. However, Mr. O'Toole said, transit riders represented only about 3 percent of the decline in driving during that period. He said the $100 billion that has been publicly spent nationwide since 1992 on mass transit has been largely ineffectual.

"We've spent an enormous amount of money and it isn't working for most people," he said.

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