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Group recognizes top environmental voters in Congress
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This week, environmental advocacy group The League of Conservation Voters released this week its 2010 National Environmental Scorecard – an analysis of the top environmental legislators in Congress.
The scorecard serves to recognize federal lawmakers who have consistently defended and voted for measures that seek to protect public health, curb pollution, limit greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the nation's dependence on oil, among other factors.
"The 2010 Scorecard clearly exposes those members who put corporate polluters and other special interests ahead of the health and well-being of all Americans by opposing efforts to transition our nation to a clean energy economy, enforce commonsense pollution safeguards and protect the environment," said Tiernan Sittenfeld, LCV senior vice president of government affairs.
The report also ranks states' delegations regarding environmental policy, with Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Hawaii topping the list, respectively, for the House of Representatives. Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas received the lowest scores, respectively.
For senatorial delegations, California, Delaware and Maryland led all others, with Georgia, Kansas and Maine receiving the lowest rankings.
While the purpose of the scorecard is meant to curry support and recognition for environmentally conscious members of Congress, the report also reflects widespread disappointment regarding how little effective legislation was actually passed last year.
"The most important votes of 2010 are the ones that didn't happen: The Senate failed to even begin debate on a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill and also failed to respond to the greatest environmental disaster in our nation's history – the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico," said LCV President Gene Karpinski.
What's more the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently found itself on the defensive, as a number of Congressional Republicans have called for drastic reductions in the agency's scope, power and funding.
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