Full Scorecard available here
Philadelphia, PA – Today, Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania (CVPA) joined the national League of Conservation Voters (LCV) in releasing the 2010 National Environmental Scorecard, revealing scores for the Pennsylvania delegation in the second session of the 111th Congress. The 2010 Scorecard was released amidst the greatest attack on the EPA’s budget in 30 years and current assaults on the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and wildlife protections in Congress.
“We applaud those members of the Pennsylvania delegation who fought in 2010 to protect public health and the environment and reduce our nation’s dangerous dependence on oil, such as Representatives Brady, Fattah and Schwartz,” said CVPA Executive Director Josh McNeil. “The 2010 Scorecard clearly exposes the willingness of Representatives Bill Shuster and Tim Murphy to put corporate polluters and other special interests ahead of the health and well-being of Pennsylvanians.”
The 2010 Scorecard includes 6 Senate and 9 House votes on issues ranging from clean energy to public health protections to wildlife conservation. Given the disastrous impact of the resolution offered by Senator Murkowski (R-AK), LCV double scored the vote on her bill, which would have blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from moving forward with commonsense steps to reduce dangerous carbon pollution. Additionally, LCV took the unusual step of scoring co-sponsorship of Dirty Air Act legislation in the House. These steps bring the Senate total to 7 and the House total to 10. In Pennsylvania, 5 House members earned a perfect 100 percent score in 2010, while 4 House members earned abysmal scores of 10-0 percent. The average House score in 2010 for Pennsylvania was 60 percent and the average Senate score was 86 percent.
“Unfortunately, the most important votes of 2010 are the ones that didn’t happen: the Senate failed to even begin debate on a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill and also failed to respond to the greatest environmental disaster in our nation’s history — the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico,” said LCV President Gene Karpinski. “The 2010 National Environmental Scorecard clearly illustrates that there is much work to be done, and LCV will be there at every step of the way in 2011 and beyond, working to protect the environment and public health while transitioning our nation to a clean energy economy.”
Ten Pennsylvania representatives voted for the CLEAR Act to respond to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, while 7 voted against it. Senators Casey and Specter opposed Senator Murkowski’s Dirty Air Act resolution.
2010 Scores
Senate
Casey (D ) 86 Specter (D ) 86 House of Representatives
1 Brady, R. (D ) 100 2 Fattah (D ) 100 3 Dahlkemper (D ) 100 4 Altmire (D ) 80 5 Thompson, G. (R ) 10 6 Gerlach (R ) 30 7 Sestak (D ) 100 8 Murphy, P. (D ) 70 9 Shuster (R ) 0 10 Carney (D ) 70 11 Kanjorski (D ) 90 12 Critz (D ) 67 13 Schwartz (D ) 100 14 Doyle (D ) 90 15 Dent (R ) 40 16 Pitts (R ) 10 17 Holden (D ) 70 18 Murphy, T. (R ) 0 19 Platts (R ) 20
For 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.
The full 2010 National Environmental Scorecard can be found here.
