Members of the New York and New Jersey congressional delegations received higher scores than most of their counterparts on the League of Conservation Voters' 2017 scorecard that rates Congress’ votes on environmental and energy issues.
According to the league, the scorecard serves as a yardstick to assess the environmental records of every member of Congress as the Trump administration continues to roll back environmental protections. The LCV said in its report that 2017 an “unmitigated disaster” for the environment and public health.
Experts from 20 environmental and conservation organizations select key votes on energy, global warming, public lands, wildlife conservation and spending for environmental programs and rate members of Congress on a 100-point scale, based on how they voted on each issue. The 2017 scorecard included 35 House votes and 19 Senate votes. Absences counted as anti-environment votes.
On average, members of the House and Senate voted in line with the LCV 45 percent of the time, with major differences based on party affiliation. New York and New Jersey both beat the national averages.
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The New Jersey LCV said it was pleased to see scores for state’s Republican delegation were improving, but was disappointed that it failed to break the 50 percent mark.
“As Trump launched attack after attack on longstanding environmental protections, Representatives [Rodney] Frelinghuysen and [Tom] MacArthur refused to stand up for New Jersey’s air, water, land and wildlife,” NJLCV Executive Director Ed Potosnak said in a statement. “We’re more determined than ever before to hold members of Congress accountable for putting polluters ahead of our families.”
The lowest score in the New York delegation went to Rep. Chris Collins, a Republican who earned a score of just 3 percent. The lowest score in New Jersey went to Frelinghuysen, who earned a 9 percent rating.
Read the full scorecard here.
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