Partisan Divide in Congress Wider Than Ever on Environmental Issues: LCV

"League of Conservation Voters' voting scorecard shows record disparity on green issues, with GOP campaigns increasingly funded by fossil fuel company contributions."

"House Republicans cast pro-environmental votes just 5 percent of the time in 2016, while their Democratic colleagues tallied a 94 percent voting record, according to the League of Conservation Voters. That makes the 114th Congress the most politically polarized in the 46-year history of LCV's Scorecard, the new numbers released Thursday show.

In the Senate, the average GOP member was voting pro-environment 14 percent of the time, while the Democrats' average was 96 percent. The gap of 85 points between the Republican and Democratic average scores in 2016 was only slightly smaller than the record 87-point divide in 2015. As a whole, Congress was more divided than ever in the two years before the most recent election.

Many "pro-environment" votes in 2016 were to stop GOP efforts to roll back protections, noted Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), ranking member of the Senate Environment Committee. Carper's LCV score was 94 percent."

Marianne Lavelle reports for InsideClimate News February 23, 2017.

SEE ALSO:

"Climate: Conservatives Predict 'Real War' With Environmentalists" (Greenwire)

"Weakened Democrats Bow to Voters, Opting for Total War on Trump" (New York Times)
 

Source: InsideClimate News, 02/24/2017