Greens’ vote scorecard slams ‘relentless attacks’ on environment in 2015

The League of Conservation Voters slammed the Republican-led Congress’s climate work on Wednesday, citing a “trend of relentless attacks on environmental protections” during the 2015 session of Congress.

In the group’s annual scorecard, based on 35 House votes and 26 Senate votes in 2015, the group gave House Republicans an average score of just 3 percent, and Senate Republicans a score of 5 percent. 

{mosads}Thirty-two senators — including presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz — received scores of zero, as did more than 100 House members. 

Democrats fared much better than Republicans: House Democrats scored an average of 91 percent, and Senate Democrats, 92 percent. Twenty-two senators received perfect scores, including presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. 

LCV highlighted members’ votes in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline, measures targeting portions of environmental laws like the Clean Air Act, and the Congressional Review Act resolutions against the Obama administration’s climate rule for power plants and water authority regulation.

“In 2015, the extreme Republican leadership of both chambers wasted no time pursuing big polluters’ agenda, immediately assaulting both bedrock environmental laws and more recent environment progress that protect our air, water, public lands, and wildlife,” LCV president Gene Karpinski said. “Fortunately, environmental champions in Congress and the administration defeated virtually all of these radical attacks.”

The group said members’ climate votes will be an election issue this fall, and it praised President Obama for his work on climate change policies. 

“We commend the Obama administration and our allies in Congress, and we will redouble our work with them in 2016 to ensure that the United States continues to lead the way when it comes to combating the climate crisis, transitioning to a clean energy economy, and protecting our air, water, lands, and wildlife,” Karpinski said.