League of Conservation Voters releases National Scorecard for Wisconsin’s delegation

MADISON, WI – Today, Wisconsin Conservation Voters released the Wisconsin delegation’s scores for the League of Conservation Voters’ 2022 National Environmental Scorecard highlighting our state’s leaders’ action to protect our environment, protect our democracy, and build a clean energy future. Since 1970, LCV’s Scorecard has been the primary yardstick for evaluating the environmental records of members of Congress. It is available for download in English and in Spanish here.

Last year was the best year ever for climate action in Congress with the passage of the landmark Inflation Reduction Act that invests roughly $369 billion in advancing clean energy, creating good jobs, and fighting climate change and environmental injustice. This clean energy plan was finalized against a backdrop of devastating and costly climate-fueled extreme weather and oil and gas companies’ exploitation of Putin’s unlawful war on Ukraine. Every Democrat in our state’s delegation came together to make the country’s first transformational climate law a reality. Unfortunately, not a single Republican voted for this popular, affordable clean energy plan.

“We are proud to have representatives who will stand up for our state’s health and environment,” said Wisconsin Conservation Voters Executive Director Kerry Schumann. “Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Rep. Gwen Moore, Rep. Mark Pocan, and  former Rep. Ron Kind worked every day to protect Wisconsin’s natural resources, fight climate change equitably, and ensure a brighter, cleaner future for all of us living in Wisconsin. We know the work is not done. The future of our planet and our democracy are at stake. We need to build on this tremendous success, and we need our delegation to work with the White House and their colleagues in Congress to continue to pass bold pro-environment and pro-democracy legislation. We also must hold Rep. Glenn Grothman, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, Rep. Tom Tiffany, Rep. Bryan Steil, Rep. Mike Gallagher, and Sen. Ron Johnson accountable for not supporting these issues that have broad support from Wisconsinites.”

“What a year of historic progress! In 2022, pro-environment majorities in the House and Senate showed the world what’s possible when leaders are committed to delivering the action on climate, clean energy, jobs, and justice voters demand,” said LCV Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Tiernan Sittenfeld. “In a year that saw more suffering from the climate crisis and more pain at the pump as oil and gas companies raised energy costs, environmental champions in Congress took transformative climate action to begin to insulate the U.S. from volatile fossil fuel prices and build an affordable clean energy future. This year, we are all in to support the swift, effective, and equitable implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, work with Wisconisin’s champions in Congress to continue to fight for popular action on climate and environmental justice and block attempts to roll back environmental safeguards,  and support the Biden-Harris administration’s finalization of critical health and climate protections across the agencies.”

The 2022 Scorecard includes dozens of votes on other impactful climate and environmental bills, as well as a number of votes in both chambers on legislation that would strengthen democracy, including the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the DISCLOSE Act. To safeguard equity, LCV’s 2022 Scorecard included votes in both chambers to protect same-sex and interracial marriages as well as reproductive rights.

For the first time, this year the Scorecard includes a new section highlighting the high-scoring leadership of the Tri-Caucus. Leadership of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) scored an average 98 percent on the 2022 Scorecard and were instrumental to passing bold, pro-environment legislation, championed strong pro-democracy policies, and worked to address environmental injustice.

The extreme storms and temperatures, and catastrophic floods that continue to affect our communities this year required an all-of-government approach that Congress helped deliver, despite relentless attempts by the fossil fuel industry and other entrenched interests to put their profits over Wisconsinites.

The 2022 Scorecard includes 23 votes in the Senate and 19 votes in the House, with the vote on the IRA counting twice in both chambers.

The full delegation’s scores for 2022 are:

Senator Tammy Baldwin – 95 percent
Senator Ron Johnson – 4 percent
Representative Mark Pocan – 100 percent
Representative Gwen Moore – 95 percent
Representative Ron Kind – 95 percent
Representative Scott Fitzgerald – 0 percent
Representative Glenn Grothman – 0 percent
Representative Tom Tiffany – 0 percent
Representative Mike Gallagher – 5 percent
Representative Bryan Steil – 11 percent

LCV has published a National Environmental Scorecard every Congress since 1970. The Scorecard represents the consensus of experts from more than 20 respected environmental and conservation organizations who selected the key votes on which members of Congress are scored. LCV scores votes on the most important issues of the year, including energy, climate change, environmental justice, public health, public lands and wildlife conservation, democracy, and spending for environmental programs. The votes included in the Scorecard presented members of Congress with a real choice and distinguish which legislators are working for environmental protection. More information on individual votes and the Scorecard archive can be found at scorecard.lcv.org.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.