League of Conservation Voters calls 112th House of Representatives 'most anti-environmental' ever

The League of Conservation Voters' National Environment Scorecard measures the eco-credentials of U.S. representatives and senators. On Wedneday, the league released its 45th annual scorecard. It was not what you'd call an auspicious showing for the 112th Congress. In fact:

'The best that can be said about this session of the 112th Congress is that it's over,' said LCV President Gene Karpinski. 'In the face of Hurricane Sandy and the hottest year on record in the U.S., the House of Representatives managed to cement its status as the most anti-environmental House ever. If it weren't for the Senate and the Obama Administration, many of the public health safeguards Americans rely on would have been lost.'

The 2012 scorecard covers 14 Senate votes and 35 House votes of the second session of the 112th Congress on an array of issues, including Arctic oil drilling, clean energy, land use, wildlife conservation, climate science funding and public health protections.

As anyone knows who has followed environmental issues even cursorily, the current Congress is packed with members who reject the science behind assessments of climate change and fight like the dickens against any policy that would protect or enhance the environment at any level. The situation has been deteriorating for years, but it's gotten worse ever since George W. Bush stepped into office. And despite some good initiatives from the Obama administration, it has not been able to reverse the trend. In some areas, in fact, it has exacerbated it with environmental short-sightedness of its own.

Of course, the scorecard only measures what got voted on. It doesn't measure bills that environmentally conscious members introduced which never got a vote in the House or Senate. And it doesn't measure the failure of members to introduce any bills at all on some important environmental issues. As for what it does measure:

[I]n a conference call with reporters, the League was scathing about voting patterns in the House, accusing Republicans of systematically blocking action on climate change or other environmental concerns, even during last year's extreme storms and record drought.

Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who was on hand to announce the scorecard's release, is the only senator to gain a 100 percent lifetime score from the LCV, although several senators received 100 percent scores for 2012.

While 85 House members and 37 members of the Senate managed a respectable score of 90 percent or more, 175 House members and 17 members of the Senate came in at 10 percent or less. The average House score for the second session of the 112th Congress was 42 percent; the average Senate score was 56 percent.

There was a sharp distinction between Democrats and Republicans, which can be seen by looking at the LCV's scoring party leaders.

In the Senate, the leadership average for the Democrats was 98 percent; in the House it was 86 percent. For the Republicans, the same averages were nine percent and six percent respectively. Please continue reading for more about the league's 2012 environmental scorecard.