Gutknecht gets zero rating from League of Conservation Voters

Kline gets 8%, less than California's Richard Pombo

by Leigh Pomeroy

In a just released 2006 National Environmental Scorecard by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), Minnesota 1st District Rep. Gil Gutknecht earned the lowest rating of Minnesota's congressional delegation. Gutknecht's rating puts him in the same category as other members of Congress who have earned a zero, including House Majority Leader John Boehner, who will be touring with Gutknecht on Thursday, Oct. 12, including a stop at at Minnesota State University Mankato.

Second District Congressman John Kline received 8%, less than the 17% rating earned by Rep. Richard Pombo of California, who has been known for his attempts to gut the Endangered Species Act.

At the top of the Minnesota delegation is Rep. Betty McCollum, with a 100% rating. The list is as follows:

Betty McCollum (DEM)	MN-4	100%
Martin Olav Sabo (DEM)	MN-5	92%
Jim Ramstad (REP)	MN-3	83%
James Oberstar (DEM)	MN-8	67%
Mark Kennedy (REP)	MN-6	33%
Collin Peterson (DEM)	MN-7	17%
John Kline (REP)	MN-2	8%
Gil Gutknecht (REP)	MN-1	0%

In the Senate, Mark Dayton scored 86% and Norm Coleman 29%. According to an LCV email,

Twenty Senators and 80 Representatives scored a dismal 0%, voting against the environment every single time. Rep. J. D. Hayworth (AZ) took home a zero, as did Sens. George Allen (VA), James Inhofe (OK), and Mitch McConnell (KY).

On its website the LCV writes:

America has the ingenuity and technological know-how to create a new energy future that protects the environment, reinvigorates the economy, reduces our dependence on oil, provides relief to consumers, and strengthens our national security....

[T]he 109th Congress got off to a particularly bad start with the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the most anti-environmental piece of legislation signed into law in recent memory. Although this new law has clearly done nothing to solve our energy problems, Congress chose to stay the ill-advised course in 2006. In fact, the Congressional leadership simply pushed for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off our coasts and didn't even allow debate on forward-looking solutions to our energy problems, such as making cars go further on a gallon of gas by increasing fuel economy standards, or increasing our use of clean, renewable energy.