LCV Releases National Environmental Scorecard

A Message from Gene Karpinski, President, League of Conservation Voters

The national League of Conservation Voters (LCV) has just released its 2010 National Environmental Scorecard, which provides objective, factual information about the most important environmental legislation considered and the corresponding voting records of all members of the second session of the 111th Congress.

How did our members of Congress vote on 2010’s major environmental bills? Click here to view our just-released 2010 National Environmental Scorecard and see how members of Congress measure up.

The 111th Congress started off with great promise for the environment, most significantly with House passage of comprehensive energy and climate legislation. As the 2010 National Environmental Scorecard reflects, the successes of 2009 were followed by an incredibly disappointing second session in 2010.

Indeed, the most important votes of 2010 are the ones that didn’t happen: first and most importantly, the Senate failed to even begin debate on a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill that would have created jobs, increased America’s energy independence, and protected the planet from carbon pollution; next, the Senate failed to respond to the greatest disaster in our nation’s history — the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Click here to view the LCV 2010 National Environmental Scorecard and see how your members of Congress voted on key environmental issues.

While the lack of progress in 2010 is highly disappointing, LCV applauds those members of Congress who fought to protect public health and the environment and reduce our nation’s dangerous dependence on oil. Conversely, 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 protect the environment.

Despite the disappointments of 2010, LCV will continue to work for environmental policies that protect our planet for future generations. LCV will also fight to protect the EPA and hold accountable those who seek to undermine our environmental protections. And LCV calls on you to contact your elected officials to urge them to support critical environmental legislation and oppose efforts to cripple the EPA in 2011 and beyond.

Please help educate everyone you know about how members of Congress voted on the environment last year. After viewing the 2010 National Environmental Scorecard, please spread the word by forwarding this to your friends and family.

CTLCV on “Meet the Leaders” for Earth Day 40

CTLCV Executive Director  Lori Brown appears on Cablevision's Meet the Leaders program for Earth Day 40. 

Watch it here:

(the audio in this clip is now working… apologies for the technical difficulties.)

Feb 22 Press Release: CT Delegation Earns Perfect Scores on 2009 National Environmental Scorecard from National LCV

Today, the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters (CTLCV) joined the national League of Conservations Voters in releasing the 2009 National Environmental Scorecard, unveiling scores for the Connecticut delegation in the first session of the 111^th Congress.  For 30 years, the LCV's National Environmental Scorecard has been the nationally-accepted yardstick used to rate members of Congress on environmental, public health and energy issues.

In Connecticut, all five House members and two senators earned a perfect 100 percent score in 2009.  Only Connecticut and Hawaii earned perfect scores in both chambers.

"We applaud Connecticut's entire federal delegation for fighting in 2009 to bring clean energy jobs to the state and reduce our national dependence on foreign oil," said CTLCV's Executive Director, Lori Brown.  "Now we need our state lawmakers to take equal note of their constituents' overriding concerns with protecting our environment, moving toward a clean energy future, and creating jobs to get us there."

The 2009 National Environmental Scorecard includes 11 Senate and 13 House votes dominated by clean energy and climate but also encompassing other environmental issues such as public lands, water and wildlife conservation. 

"The 2009 National Environmental Scorecard illustrates the extent to which the Obama administration and the 111th Congress began to move our nation towards a clean energy future that will create new jobs, make America more energy independent and curb global warming pollution," said LCV President Gene Karpinski.   "However, it also makes clear that there is still much work to be done, first and foremost to finish the work started in the House by swiftly passing a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill in the Senate."

Connecticut Delegation 2009 National Environmental Scores

Senate
Dodd (D )                  100%
Lieberman (I )            100%

House
Larson, J. (D- Dist 1)   100%
Courtney (D-Dist 2)     100%
DeLauro (D-Dist 3)      100%
Himes (D-Dist 4)         100%
Murphy, C. (D-Dist 5)  100%

Representatives Larson, Courtney, DeLauro, Himes and Murphy all voted for the landmark American Clean Energy and Security Act.  That bill would help bring more than 16,741 clean energy jobs to Connecticut, according to the Center for American Progress & Political Economy Research Institute's clean energy jobs map.

In Connecticut, state lawmakers were graded by the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters Environmental Scorecard (CTLCV) for votes taken during the 2009 session of the Connecticut General Assembly. Connecticut's state lawmakers' environmental voting records are available in CTLCV's 2009 Environmental Scorecard, online at www.ctlcv.org/scorecard.

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