View the full LCV Scorecard online here.
Washington Conservation Voters today unveiled scores for the Washington state delegation released this morning as part of the League of Conservation Voters’ (LCV) 2015 National Environmental Scorecard. LCV’s 2015 Scorecard includes the most votes ever scored. Despite the strong environmental ethos in much of the Washington delegation, overall 2015 will go down as the most anti-environmental Congress in our history. This is in direct contrast to President Obama who led the way on combating climate change and protecting our environment. The Scorecard is available in both English and Spanish at scorecard.lcv.org.
“Once again, too many members of Congress were complicit in extreme attacks on both bedrock environmental laws and more recent progress to protect our air, water, public lands and wildlife,” said Shannon Murphy, President of Washington Conservation Voters. “Despite last year being the hottest year on record, Congressional leaders put polluters’ agenda ahead of the health of Washingtonians, environmental protections and climate action. This is particularly disappointing from members of the Washington delegation, where we have long had a bipartisan tradition of environmental protection.”
The 2015 Scorecard includes votes cast during the first session of the 114th Congress. Both chambers seemingly left no environmental issue untouched in 2015, with assaults on the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Antiquities Act. It includes 35 House votes, which ties the record for the most votes scored in the House for the fourth time in five years, and 25 votes in the Senate, the second highest number ever included.
The good news is that the Scorecard also includes many votes led by environmental allies like Washington’s Senators Murray and Cantwell who stood up for climate change science, clean energy, public lands, wildlife protections, among other issues. Thanks to President Obama and environmental champions in Congress virtually all of the legislative attacks on the environment and public health were defeated.
In Washington, 6 House members and both Senators earned a score of 85 percent or greater on the 2015 Scorecard, while 4 House members earned an abysmal score of 10 percent or less. The average House score in 2015 for Washington was 58 percent and the average Senate score was 96 percent.
“The 2015 Scorecard shows that the radical leadership in the House and Senate wasted no time pursuing big polluters’ agenda last year, and their environmental assault is well underway in 2016,” said League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski. “Fortunately, we have a growing force of environmental allies, including the president, as well as many in Congress, who are working tirelessly to combat climate change, transition to a clean energy economy and safeguard our air, water, lands and wildlife.”
**Full Scorecard available in English and Spanish here**
Washington State Delegation Scores:
Senate:
Cantwell 96
Murray 96
House:
1 DelBene, 94
2 Larsen, R., 94
3 Herrera Beutler, 6
4 Newhouse, 3
5 McMorris Rodgers, 0
6 Kilmer, 94
7 McDermott, 100
8 Reichert, 6
9 Smith, Adam, 89
10 Heck, D., 97
For over 40 years, the National Environmental Scorecard issued by LCV has been the nationally accepted yardstick used to rate members of Congress on environmental, public health, and energy issues. For more information, visit http://scorecard.lcv.org.