Connecticut Delegation Scores in Top 5 Percent for Environmental Votes
By Adam Kredo
WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 – In a report released Tuesday by the League of Conservation Voters, the Connecticut congressional delegation received an average score of 78 percent for votes on environmental legislation in 2005, placing the delegation in the top five percent overall.
The 2005 National Environmental Scorecard rates members of Congress based on votes on 20 environmental bills in the Senate and 18 in the House.
Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, scored 78 percent, down from his 2003-04 score of 87 percent, while Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman scored 90 percent and 70 percent respectively.
“I believe we will not have a world to live in if we continue our neglectful ways,” Shays said in a statement after reviewing his score. “This belief has driven me to advocate and vote for legislation that focuses on conservation rather than consumption.” Although Shays’ score declined overall, it was well above the average for all House Republicans, which was 11 percent.
The league praised Shays for his solid voting record “on behalf of the environment, health and quality of life of Connecticut families.”
“In particular, we appreciate his leadership on clean, forward-looking energy solutions, including his recently introduced bill which helps reduce our dependence on oil and protect consumers,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, the league’s legislative director.
Of the 18 House bills the league used to rate the members, Shays was absent from two votes and voted twice in a manner the league deemed negative for the environment, according to the report. The two missed votes also counted negatively toward his score. Dodd, in a statement from his office, said that he “believes that protecting our environment should be a top priority” but that “sadly there are too many in Washington that fail to realize that.” Lieberman, who scored higher than his 2003-04 score of 56 percent, also was penalized for not voting. Casey Aden-Wansburry, Lieberman’s communications director, said in a written statement that Lieberman’s ” 2005 score was lower than usual because of several votes he was forced to miss for family reasons. ” Lieberman is still a “leader” when it comes to the environment, said Patty Pendergast of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association.
Tony Massaro, the league’s senior vice president for political affairs, said the group “cast an unbiased eye” on every member of Congress after a congressional session “in which many of our core environmental laws were under attack.”
One of the league’s main concerns is preventing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and Sittenfeld, in a press release, commended Lieberman for his “tireless leadership in successfully fighting multiple efforts to drill in the Arctic Refuge.”
Moreover, the league heavily criticized Congress for the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, a bill that sets guidelines for policies than can help determine energy prices in America. The league, in a press release, called the legislation the “most anti-environmental bill signed into law in recent memory,” saying it “fails to protect consumers in any way from rising energy prices.”
Agreeing with the league, Curt Johnson, the senior attorney and program director for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, said in a telephone interview that the Republican Party “as a whole has turned its back almost entirely on the environmental agenda.” While he noted the great amount of progress the federal government has made over the past 30 years, Johnson said that there is still a great amount that needs to be accomplished.
