Which Members Of The House Were Dirty, Filthy Pigs Last Session... Environmentally Speaking?

Yesterday the League of Conservation Voters released their 2010 scorecard rating every Member of the House's record on environmental issues. Considering that Big Oil and Big Coal now dominate Congress utterly, it's important to know which members of each party's delegations vote more or less environmentally than their own party's mainstream. In California, for example, 15 Democrats have perfect scores (100%) and 17 Republicans have their version of perfect scores (0). The best Democratic friends of the environment were Xavier Becerra, Lois Capps, Dennis Cardoza, Judy Chu, Susan Davis, Sam Farr, Mike Honda, Doris Matsui, Jerry McNerney, George Miller, Grace Royball-Allard, Loretta Sanchez, Adam Schiff, Brad Sherman, and Lynn Woolsey. And the dedicated destroyers of the worst environment were Ken Calvert, John Campbell, Elton Gallegly, Wally Herger, Duncan Hunter's drunken son, Darrell Issa, Jerry Lewis, Dan Lungren, Kevin McCarthy, Tom McClintock, Buck McKeon, Gary Miller, Devin Nunes, Dana Rohrabacher and Ed Royce. The only Republicans willing to break with their party significantly were Brian Bilbray (30%) and Mary Bono Mack (30%) and the Democrats who were willing to sell out environmental concerns significantly were Diane Watson (70%- now retired) and Zoe Lofgren (70%).

Nationally, the worst Democrats (with scores of 50% or lower) were Bobby Bright (AL- 40%- defeated in November), Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ- 50%- defeated in November), Marion Berry (AR- 50%- now retired), Jim Marshall (GA- 50%- defeated in November), Brad Ellsworth (IN- 50%- defeated in November), and Ike Skelton (MO- 50%- defeated in November)> Everyone of them was either defeated or retired so as not to be defeated. Democrats with low environmental scores contributed to depressing Democratic turnout all in each of these losers' districts turn-out was significantly lower than it had been in comparable years.

And the best Republicans-- actually the only halfway decent ones (50% of better)-- were Mike Castle (DE- 70%- defeated in a primary), Ander Crenshaw (FL- 60%), Charles Djou (HI- 83%- defeated in November), Mark Kirk (IL- 70%), Timothy Johnson (IL- 80%), Vernon Ehlers (MI- 70%), and Dave Reichert (WA- 70%).

House members were rated by their votes in response to the Gulf oil spill; Peter Welch's Home Star Energy Retrofit Act (which later became part of H.R. 4785, the Rural Energy Savings Program), meant to assist consumers with energy efficiency; Jay Inslee's resolution to prevent ocean acidification; Brian Baird's red tide legislation; Ron Kind;s upper Mississippi River restoration bill; Lois Capp's Ocean, Coastal, and Watershed Education Act; the Clean Estuaries Act; legislation to expand the boundary of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park; and then on willingness to oppose anti-clean air bills.

Global warming is the central environmental challenge of our time. In 2007 in Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court ruled that global warming pollutants were covered by the Clean Air Act and directed the EPA to determine whether the continued emission of such pollutants endangered the country’s public health and welfare. In December 2009, the EPA issued this “endangerment finding,” concluding that, based on the best science, global warming pollution presents a clear threat to public health and welfare. The endangerment finding was the scientific determination necessary to allow the agency to start limiting global warming pollution under the Clean Air Act.

Representatives introduced eight bills to block, weaken, or delay the EPA’s implementation of the Clean Air Act to reduce harmful global warming pollution. These bills fall into three categories: Congressional Review Act disapproval resolutions to overturn the EPA’s science-based endangerment finding, legislation declaring that greenhouse gases are not pollutants subject to the Clean Air Act, and legislation delaying the EPA’s actions to reduce carbon pollution from the nation’s biggest stationary sources of pollution, like coal plants and oil refineries. The four disapproval resolutions (H.J. Res. 66, H.J. Res. 76, H.J. Res. 77, H. Res. 974) would, for the first time, substitute Congress’ political judgment for the EPA’s scientific judgment on the public health threat posed by pollution. The three bills (H.R. 391, H.R. 4396, H.R. 4572) declaring that greenhouse gases are not pollutants under the Clean Air Act would reverse the Supreme Court’s landmark 2007 decision. The bill to delay the EPA’s actions (H.R. 4753) would put a stop-work order on the EPA’s commonsense steps to reduce carbon pollution from power plants and refineries, among other large polluters. These harmful bills would overturn sound science, threaten public health, increase our dependence on oil, and block long-overdue action to address climate change and to hold the nation’s biggest polluters accountable.

201 representatives cosponsored one or more of these Dirty Air Acts during the 111th Con- gress.