| Among Virginia's Democratic members of the House of Representatives, I must admit I was personally surprised that Rick Boucher (D-9TH) received a 100% rating. Because he represents most of the coal interests in the state, I wrongly assumed that he would have a lower environmental record than some others. I stand corrected. The only other Virginia member with that 100% rating was Gerald Connolly (D-11th).
The environmental record for state Republicans contained absolutely no surprises. They were against pretty much everything.
I was certainly not surprised that Eric Cntor (R-7th) was the only Virginia politician to get a 0% rating. After all, he has become one of the faces of the "Party of NO," so he has a knee-jerk opposition to anything and everything proposed by Democrats and environmentalists. Cantor even voted against clean water funding that provides loans to localities trying to cope with sewer overflows that can threaten public health. That bill passed the House by a vote of 317-101.
One of the most egregious attempts to undermine protection of the environment was an amendment offered by my very own representative, Bob Goodlatte (R-6th). He wanted to eliminate the requirement that state foresters advertise upcoming timber sales in national forests and get rid of regulations that provide oversight of logging projects on federal land. Only 148 Republican voted for that horror.
Goodlatte got a 14% rating from the League of Conservation Voters, but that was better than the 7% that Randy Forbes (R-4th) got. Forbes thought that sewer overflows deserved money, but he voted against every other position on the LCV scorecard.
Even Frank Wolf (R-10th), who had a lousy 21% rating, voted against that forest amendment of Goodlatte's. He made up for that, though, by joining all the other Virginia Republicans in voting for a stupid amendment by Paul Broun of Georgia that would have cut off funding for all the employees of the Council on Environmental Quality. Plus, he also voted against clean water funding.
Other environmental voting ratings include:
Wittman (R-1st) ; 21%
Nye (D-2nd) 64%
Scott (D-3rd) 93%
Perriello (D-5th) 71%
Moran (D-8th) 93% |
