Message from LCV's President

LCV’s 2002 National Environmental Scorecard tells the story of two very different legislative bodies and highlights one very big problem. The House majority leaders did all they could to push proposals to weaken environmental protections and exploit natural resources at any cost, while Senate majority leaders tried to stop it. Any hope for real environmental progress was lost in the process.

The narrow political division in the House and Senate were reflected in scores of the members. Just short of a majority of the House—209 representatives—cast a pro-environment Scorecard vote at least half the time. But even this large bipartisan group could not overcome the discipline imposed by the two most powerful congressmen who vote in the House, Majority Leader Dick Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay, both of whom earned zeroes on the Scorecard (by tradition, the Speaker of the House rarely votes). Leaders like Henry Waxman, Dick Gephardt, Nick Rahall, Ed Markey and Nancy Pelosi led a pro-environment alliance that included 30 perfect scores in the House this congress. Unfortunately, there were also 57 zeroes.

The absence of a pro-environment majority in the House was clearly reflected in a stagnant legislative agenda on environmental issues. Environmental leaders in the House attempted to increase funding to help farmers conserve their land and protect water quality and failed. They fought against trade promotion authority legislation that could undermine our environmental laws and failed. And they battled to protect the right of citizens to know about environmental hazards in their communities. But committed anti-environmentalists in the House majority leadership blocked them at every turn. The lone success on this year’s House Scorecard was passage of a ban on coastal drilling in California.

On the brighter side, pro-environment forces finally broke the majority barrier in the Senate in 2002, as 45 Democratic, 5 Republican and 1 Independent senators scored 50 percent or higher—up from 47 in 2000. The upward surge was driven by freshman senators who averaged 62 percent on the 107th Congress Scorecard, well above the 41 percent 106th Congress average of those whom they replaced. But heightened scores unfortunately did not translate into immediate legislative progress—except, importantly, we were able to halt the worst environmental threats. It took all the effort of environmental leaders like John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, Harry Reid, Tom Daschle, Susan Collins and Paul Wellstone (our late environmental hero whose lifetime LCV score was the highest in the Senate) to stop the most egregious elements of President Bush’s energy plan, like drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. When progress was attempted, the fragility of the pro-environment majority was apparent, as efforts to improve fuel economy standards, energy efficiency and renewable energy fell by the legislative wayside.

In a year in which the environmental community expended most of their time and resources to stop anti-environment measures from succeeding, one thing became increasingly clear: bipartisan cooperation to protect more than thirty years of environmental progress is quickly disappearing. Common ground for environmental progress is often impossible to find when both parties feel there is little room for error in their battles to gain control of Congress.

It is sometimes difficult to remember, but it was not always this way. A solid coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans passed landmark pieces of environmental legislation like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act by wide majorities, reflecting the priority the American people place on protecting our natural resources. That priority, especially among younger Americans, is stronger than ever. A recent National Public Radio poll asked Americans how they’d rate the strength of their commitment to the environment on a scale of 1 to 10—and more than half put themselves at 8 or higher. Unfortunately, as reflected in the 2002 Scorecard, the commitment of most members of Congress to environmental protection falls well below that of the people they were elected to represent.

When Republican, Democratic and independent candidates recognize that environmental progress is also smart electoral politics—regardless of the party to which you happen to belong—our Congress, our environment, and our nation will be much better off. Until then, LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard will continue to track our progress and serve as a roadmap for how far we still need to go.

Deb Callahan
President, LCV