Cohen Scores 91 Percent on LCV National Environmental Scorecard

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN-9) today received a 91 percent on The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) 2011 National Environmental Scorecard. LCV works to turn environmental values into national priorities and the recent Scorecard reflects the most anti-environmental session of the U.S. House of Representatives in history, featuring unparalleled assaults on our nation’s bedrock environmental and public health safeguards.

“It is an honor to be recognized by the League of Conservation Voters for my record on the environment,” said Congressman Cohen. “It is important to note that this year’s record onslaught of attacks was not limited to public lands and other species. These attacks were a coordinated effort to rollback 40 years of progress cleaning up our nation’s air and water and improving our nation’s health. Had these attacks been successful, the public health impact would have been enormous and led to thousands of premature deaths and cases of lung disease, birth defects, cancer, asthma and other major illnesses. It is important now more than ever to fight for our public health and environment and that is what I vow to do in Congress.”

The 2011 Scorecard includes 11 Senate and a record 35 House votes on issues ranging from public health protections to clean energy to land and wildlife conservation. The House votes included in the 2011 Scorecard are simply many of the most significant votes taken in a year that saw the House voting more than 200 times on the environment and public health.

While the House voted against the environment a shocking number of times, both the U.S. Senate and the Obama administration stood fast against the vast majority of these attacks. Indeed, not only did LCV’s cornerstone environmental protections emerge from 2011 largely unscathed, the Obama administration also made major progress through administrative actions to protect our air and water.

For over 40 years, the National Environmental Scorecard issued by LCV has been the nationally accepted yardstick used to rate members of Congress on environmental, public health and energy issues. The full 2011 National Environmental Scorecard can be found at www.lcv.org/scorecard