Missoula News

Environmental Votes Counted

Who’s Green? Baucus, Tester Get Top Eco Scores

By Amy Linn, 12-30-09

Flickr photo by Ken Ilio.

Montana Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester were given top marks and named “environmental champions” for their voting records on legislation involving major environmental issues, according to an annual Congressional Scorecard released today by Environment Montana.

Environment Montana is part of a federation of nonprofit environmental advocacy groups in 27 states and the District of Columbia, which together form an organization called Environment America (EA).

Baucus and Tester, both Democrats, won EA’s highest possible score—100 percent—for voting green on all major environmental bills tracked by the group from May 2007 through September 2009.

“We hope this is a good model for what continues to happen in the future,” said Environment Montana’s Zoee Turill.

The Montana senators supported successful legislation such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allocates nearly $80 billion in clean energy investments. They also voted for eco bills that failed, such as one that would cap global warming pollution, and another that would protect the coasts from offshore drilling.

Overall, the report deems 40 Senators and 144 Representatives to be “champions” who voted pro-environment for every bill that was monitored.

Twenty six Senators and 17 Representatives—who voted anti-environment 100 percent of the time—were named “natural disasters.”

U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) was neither champ nor disaster, and got a 27 percent rating for voting pro-environment about one quarter of the time, EA states.

While congratulating lawmakers for making progress, the 2009 Environment America Scorecard concludes that “the clear story is still one of unfinished business.”

As the report puts it:

-- The Clean Water Restoration Act “still has a long way to go before passage.”

-- The battle against global warming is “rapidly running out of time.”

-- There is public support for renewable energy at state levels, but the federal government is dragging its heels.

-- Excessive federal transportation dollars are still spent on roadways in a “profoundly flawed process that undermines other efforts to clean our environment and reduce our carbon emissions.”

Among the bills monitored, the group looked at votes on legislation:

-- To protect 2 million acres of wilderness (the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, which passed by a vote of 66-12)

-- To increase funding for clean energy and transportation (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed, 60-38)

-- To support a federal budget that includes spending on key environmental issues (passed, 55-43)

-- To cap global warming pollution (failed, 48-36)

-- To extend clean energy tax incentives (failed, 52-44)

-- To protect coasts from offshore drilling (failed, 56-42)

To read the full report and see grades for all U.S. lawmakers, click here.

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