Most Americans Are “Dirty,” Says Enviro Group

Washington, DC, February 14, 2000 – “According to the League of Conservation Voters’ (LCV) Congressional Scorecard, most Americans are ‘anti-environmental,’” said Angela Logomasini, Director of Risk and Environmental Policy at CEI, in response to the LCVs’ release of its 2000 Congressional Scorecard.

“LCV uses the Scorecard to dub members of Congress as anti-environmental because these members oppose policies that are contrary to basic American values,” she continued. “The Scorecard rates members on their support for big government, not for the environment. Members are only considered environmental if they support big spending programs, laws that trample property rights, and heavy regulation. If we applied the LCV test to most Americans, we’d have a dirty American majority,” said Logomasini.

Further analysis of specifics on the LCV Scorecard:

• “Given the overwhelming evidence that CAFE kills people by downsizing cars, the LCV's rating of CAFE votes demonstrates that, when it comes to conservation, human life ranks at the bottom of this group's priorities,” noted CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman. The Scorecard ranked a vote that would have allowed the Department of Transportation to make Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards more stringent, leading to smaller cars and more fatalities.

• “The LCV’s regular negative scoring of those who oppose federal funding for ‘family planning,’ abortion, or population control overseas shows that they are outside mainstream America,” noted Logomasini. In fact, 62 percent of Americans oppose U.S. government funding of these items, according to CEI’s National Environmental Survey (1999). “Despite what LCV contends, poverty – not people – pose environmental problems. If LCV wants to address that real concern, they would promote policies that increase wealth,” she concluded.

• “LCV seems to want a return to the failed energy policies of the 1970s in the name of fighting global warming and air pollution. But renewable energy is not always better for the environment, and it’s certainly not more efficient if it demands government subsidies. Rather than measuring members’ support for the environment, the LCV rewards members for supporting corporate welfare,” said CEI Policy Analyst Ben Lieberman regarding the LCV’s positive scoring of members who supported increased government funding for solar and renewable energy programs.

“Members of Congress should not be fooled into supporting the LCV agenda because it has nothing to do with environmental protection, and it’s contrary to the views of a large majority of Americans,” Logomasini concluded.

CEI, a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group founded in 1984, is dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more information and further analysis, please contact Emily McGee, director of media relations, at 202-331-1010, ext. 209.