Frank Gets a Perfect Score from Conservation Voters
CONSERVATION
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Anika Clark
Boston University Washington News Service
10/11/06
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11– The League of Conservation Voters gave Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) a perfect score in its annual environmental scorecard Wednesday.
The league, a self-described “independent political voice for the environment,” offers the scorecard to gauge the voting records of members of Congress with regard to environmental legislation.
“One of the reasons we put out the scorecard is to educate the public, to make sure that people know about the issues that their members of Congress are voting on…and they can then follow up with them,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, the league’s legislative director.
Frank’s high pro-environmental ranking for the 2006 session was matched with perfect
scores from every other Massachusetts legislator except Rep. William Delahunt, a Democrat, who received 92 percent. The House delegation averaged 99 percent – a ranking second only to Vermont, which has a single House member.
Although Sen. Edward Kennedy also earned 100 percent, Sen. John Kerry’s comparatively lower score brought the Massachusetts’ Senate average down to 86 percent. Kerry earned a 71 percent due to his absence during two votes on offshore drilling. For scorecard purposes not voting counts as a “negative” vote.
This year’s scorecard tallied votes on seven pieces of legislation considered by the
Senate and 12 by the House on issues ranging from offshore drilling and drilling royalties to environmental funding and food safety. Representatives from more than 20 environmental and conservation organizations picked the legislation for use in the scorecard because they were deemed the year’s most environmentally significant, according to the scorecard report.
Although Tony Massaro, the league’s senior vice president of political affairs and public education, said the Congress had failed in many environmental regards, Sittenfeld praised the “unprecedented win” of successfully passing five amendments to the Interior-Environment Appropriations Bill in the House in May 2006. Frank supported all five, as did every other member of the state’s House delegation. The five amendments were among the votes considered in this year’s scorecard.
One of these amendments promoted ending taxpayer subsidies for logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Another amendment allows for small and isolated bodies of water to be protected under the Clean Water Act.
Despite Frank’s praise from the league, some environmental groups have expressed concern about his support of reauthorizing the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which regulates ocean fishing by setting catch limits. The Ocean Conservancy, an organization that promotes healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems, believes the new act could hurt conservation efforts by allowing for slower periods of rebuilding once an area’s stock is deemed “overfished.”
Dana Wolfe, the legislative program manager at The Ocean Conservancy, said while she respects Frank’s efforts on behalf of the environment, “we’d like to see Congressman Frank’s strong conservation ethic be better applied toward conserving fishery resources as well.”
Wolfe added that she believed it possible to ensure abundant fish stocks while still protecting communities like New Bedford that rely on their fishing economies.
By contrast, Frank struck a distinction between fish stocks – a matter of replenishment –
and concerns like global warming, which signify actual environmental damage.
“I think if you can get the stock renewed in 12 years rather than 10 with much less economic damage in a working class community like New Bedford, that’s a good tradeoff,” he said.
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