League of Conservation Voters Releases 2008 National Environmental Scorecard

League of Conservation Voters Releases 2008 National Environmental Scorecard
Full Scorecard Available at http://www.lcv.org/scorecard
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The League of
Conservation Voters, which works to turn environmental values into national
priorities, today released the 2008 National Environmental Scorecard. For
30 years, the non-partisan National Environmental Scorecard from LCV has
been the nationally accepted yardstick used to rate Members of Congress on
conservation and energy issues.
LCV President Gene Karpinski announced the release of LCV's 2008
National Environmental Scorecard today, saying: "This scorecard reflects
more clearly than perhaps ever before that America is truly at a crossroads
when it comes to our energy future. In the face of gas prices that shot
above four dollars a gallon, unrest around the world, and increasing global
warming pollution, it could not be more obvious that we must reduce our
dependence on oil, yet in 2008, Congress went in the wrong direction."
The 2008 Scorecard includes 11 Senate and 13 House votes dominated by
energy but also encompassing other environmental issues. This year, 67
House members and 27 senators earned a perfect 100 percent score, which is
significantly higher than the 33 House members and 3 senators who earned a
100 percent in 2007. This year, 70 House members and 2 senators earned an
appalling score of zero percent, compared with 48 house members and 9
senators in 2007.
The average House score in 2008 was 56 percent, and the average Senate
score was 57 percent, which is slightly higher than the 53 percent House
and 52 percent Senate averages in 2007. California, Connecticut, Michigan,
Montana, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin all had perfect Senate
averages of 100 percent, while Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi,
Oklahoma, and South Carolina's senators averaged just 9 percent. In the
House, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, and Maryland all
averaged above 90 percent, while Montana and Wyoming were both below 10
percent.
"The 110th Congress began with great promise of bringing about a new
energy economy, especially with the first increase in fuel economy of cars
and light trucks in a generation," said LCV Legislative Director Tiernan
Sittenfeld. "The success of 2007 should have led to even more progress in
2008, but a vocal minority of Big Oil allies instead turned the year into a
series of missed opportunities and major steps backward."
While Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
fought for meaningful legislation to end our addiction to oil, reduce
global warming pollution, and bring about a new energy economy, a vocal
minority led by Minority Leaders Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and John Boehner
(R-OH) used every trick in the book to help their allies in Big Oil and Big
Coal. Though in the minority, these politicians not only defended billions
of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies for the oil industry, they insisted
on increasing offshore drilling, and created new handouts for dirty fuels
like oil shale, tar sands, and liquid coal.
A focal point for the debate over our energy future was the Climate
Security Act, a global warming bill advanced by Environment & Public Works
Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and
John Warner (R-VA). LCV worked hard to strengthen and pass the Climate
Security Act. After a debate cut short by Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) and
other allies of Big Oil, 48 senators voted to move forward, and 6 senators
who were absent issued statements indicating that they would have voted
that way as well - bringing the total number of senators who supported
taking action to address global warming to 54. While short of the 60 votes
necessary to override a filibuster, it's significant that a majority of
senators went on the record in support of making progress to combat global
warming.
After turning their back on the need to reduce global warming
pollution, "Drill, baby, drill," became the war cry of Republican
leadership, who - along with President Bush, Senator McCain, and Newt
Gingrich - spearheaded the campaign to mislead Americans into believing
that new offshore drilling would lead to lower gas prices. Despite the
Department of Energy's assessment that the negligible impacts on gas prices
would not occur until 2030, the campaign succeeded in ending the moratorium
on offshore drilling.
"As we prepare for a new Congress and a new Administration, it's all
too obvious that America is desperate for change," Sittenfeld said. "The
good news is that a new energy policy can bring about just the change we
need. LCV is committed to working with the 111th Congress and the new
Administration to take bold action. It's time to increase our production of
clean, renewable energy, cut our dependence on oil, and invest in a new
energy economy."
SOURCE League of Conservation Voters