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Green group ranks lawmakers’ environmental voting records
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) announced its annual ranking of lawmakers’ energy and environmental voting records Tuesday, a report that the green group called “a sad testament to the radical nature” of House Republicans.
“In 2011, the House Republican leadership unleashed a truly breathtaking and unprecedented assault on the environment and public health, the breadth and depth of which have made the current U.S. House of Representatives the most anti-environmental in our nation’s history,” LCV President Gene Karpinski said in a news release.
LCV, which runs one of the environmental movement’s biggest political operations, analyzed 11 Senate and 35 House votes in the first session of the 112th Congress related to energy, public health and conservation issues.
Topping the list are Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.).
GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and John Thune (S.D.) and GOP Reps. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.), among others, have the worst environmental records in Congress, according to LCV.
LCV also noted that the 2010 election cycle ushered in members with low environmental voting scores.
“A major indicator of the change in landscape in the House for 2011 is the fact that the average lifetime score of members defeated in the 2010 election cycle was 73 percent while the average 2011 score of the House members who replaced them is 15 percent,” the group said.
The group analyzed votes to limit or block Environmental Protection Agency regulations, eliminate oil industry tax breaks and expand offshore drilling, among others.
LCV praised Senate Democrats and President Obama for making sure “that the House leadership did not succeed in gutting our nation’s cornerstone environmental and public health protections in 2011.”
