How Kay Votes On: The Environment

Abysmal League of Conservation Voters Scores

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV), the "political voice of the national environmental movement", issues a scorecard every year. This non-partisan scorecard rates Representatives and Senators on how well their votes supported the environment, summing up each session of Congress with a final score for each Member, from 0 to 100%.

Kay Bailey Hutchison has never done anything but terribly on the LCV's scorecards.

Kay's LCV page gives the full details of each session she's been in, plus details of votes for the most recent session. Here are the final scores for her Senate career so far:

	109th, 2nd Session (2006)   0%
	109th, 1st Session (2005)   5%
	108th Congress (2003-2004)  8%
	107th Congress (2001-2002)  4%
	106th Congress (1999-2000)  0%

That's an average so far of 3.4%. That's not just an "F", that's an "F-".

Here's a sampling of the environmental issues Kay voted against in the most recent Congressional session:

Terrible Sierra Club Votewatch Record

Admittedly similar to the LCV scorecard, the Sierra Club's Votewatch provides more evidence that Sen. Hutchison isn't helping to protect our environment. There isn't a percentage score, so I've provided a summary count of pro- and anti-environment votes for each year.

	2006  pro: 0  anti:  2
	2005  pro: 1  anti: 18
	2004  pro: 0  anti:  5
	2003  pro: 0  anti: 20
	2002  pro: 1  anti: 13
	2001  pro: 0  anti:  7
	2000  pro: 0  anti:  7
	1999  pro: 0  anti:  7

	total pro: 2  anti: 79

A Zero From the Republicans for Environmental Protection

The LCV and Sierra Club are both carefully non-partisan organizations, but they often give more good ratings and endorsements to Democrats than Republicans. Of course, this apparent leaning toward Democrats is because they tend to value environmental protection more, but some people question these groups' fairness.

If you're among those people, you don't have to take the tree-huggers' word for how little Sen. Hutchison cares about protecting our natural resources. Even the Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP) gave her a zero on their 2005 scorecard (pdf).

Undermining Protection For Endangered Species

And it's not just voting the wrong way on environmental legislation that comes before the Senate, either. Sen. Hutchison also has a record of her own anti-environmental legislation.

In 1995, Sen. Hutchison sponsored a moratorium which halted listings of new endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Her moratorium "jeopardized at least 250 species," according to Defenders of Wildlife.

In 1996, an effort was made to lift the moratorium, but Sen. Hutchison defended it with another amendment that extended the listing ban:

Although Hutchison claimed her amendment would help save species in "emergency" situations, she provided only $1 in funding for such emergencies and created bureaucratic hurdles.

Bottom Line

There are a few Senators in Congress that have worse environmental records than Kay Bailey Hutchison, but not many. Any new Senator could hardly do worse than she has at protecting our natural resources and heritage.