Enviro Scorecard Shows Polarization of Congress

by Cat Lazaroff

In 1981, just six Republicans in the House and none in the Senate scored a zero on the League of Conservation Voters' (LCV) annual report, meaning they had voted against the environment on every issue selected by the LCV for review. In 2001, 97 Republicans in the House and 31 in the Senate in 2001 scored a zero.

By contrast, just 22 Democrats in the House and none in the Senate scored a perfect 100 in 1981, compared to 56 in the House and 15 in the Senate last year. The national average voting score for 2001 was 48 percent in the House and 46 percent in the Senate.

"Although our politicians are polarized on the environment, as they are on many issues, we're here to remind them that the public is not," said Deb Callahan, LCV president. "As always, the public is overwhelmingly in support of a clean environment and frustrated by the slow pace of getting there."

At the beginning of 2001 the same party controlled both the legislative and executive branches for the first time since 1994. The party in charge of both was the Republicans, for the first time since 1955.

In January, most observers believed that President George W. Bush would be forced to moderate his policies due to his narrow election. Environmentalists feared that he would have free reign to push an anti-environment agenda through Congress, including an energy plan that would expand fossil energy production and allow drilling on sensitive public lands including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

However, by year's end the Democrats controlled the Senate, national security concerns had displaced energy policy at the top of the country's issues list, and little environmental legislation, either good or bad, had made its way to the president's desk.

The Scorecard, published by LCV for every Congress since 1970, details how each member of Congress voted on a select group of issues chosen by experts from numerous environmental and conservation organizations. LCV scores votes on issues of environmental health and safety protection, resource conservation and spending for environmental programs.

For example, in early 2001, the Senate was called on to confirm President Bush's nominees for key environmental cabinet posts, including the Secretaries of Agriculture, Energy and Interior, and the Attorney General. Conservation groups have criticized each of Bush's choices, and massive grassroots lobbying efforts rallied dozens of votes -- mostly from Democrats -- opposing the nominations, all of which ultimately were confirmed.

The Scorecard illustrates a change in voting patterns in late May 2001, when Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont, citing among other things his strong disagreement with the new administration's environmental policies, decided to leave the Republican Party and to caucus with Senate Democrats as an Independent

The Democratic majority in the Senate has thus far held off a number of environmental attacks, the Scorecard shows, including attempts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, and a number of harmful amendments to the Senate version of agricultural legislation.

The Scorecard also illustrates clear regional differences that cut across party lines. Republicans and Democrats in New England, with an average score of 88 for House members and 68 for Senators, and the Mid-Atlantic states, with 67 and 79, far outpace those in the Rocky Mountains/Southwest, 27 and 13, and Southeast, at 29 and 30.

"There have been heroes on both sides of the aisle. Particularly in the House, pro-environment Democrats have been joined by a crucial bloc of moderate Republicans to stop many of the most egregious anti-environmental proposals from becoming law in 2001," noted Callahan.

There were many bright spots for the environment in 2001, the report shows. Democratic Senators Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and Tom Daschle of South Dakota, along with Representatives Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, Bob Clement of Tennessee and Allen Boyd of Florida all voted pro-environment more than 30 percent more often in 2001 than in 2002.

The only Republican to show a similar increase in his voting score was Ray LaHood of Illinois.

The strongest newcomers were all Democrats -- Senators Mark Dayton of Minnesota, John Corzine of New Jersey and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, and Representatives Jane Harman, Mike Honda, Hilda Solis and Dianne Watson, all of California -- all of whom achieved perfect 100 percent scores.

Twelve first year Congress members -- all Republicans -- voted pro-environment zero percent of the time, including Senator George Allen of Virginia and Representatives Darrell Issa of California and Dennis Rehberg of Montana.