Politics

Alaska lawmakers score low on environmental report card

WASHINGTON -- The League of Conservation Voters on Wednesday released its annual "scorecard" of congressional votes, and Alaska's all-Republican delegation didn't exactly make the honor roll.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski scored a 4 percent for her 2015 votes, Sen. Dan Sullivan grabbed a zero, and Rep. Don Young rang in at 6 percent.

The scores are a percentage of 100, based on 25 votes in the U.S. Senate and 35 votes in the U.S. House, all in 2015, the first session of the 114th Congress.

Given the highly partisan nature of environmental legislation over the last year, the vote card is filled with Republicans scoring in the single-digits and Democrats with scores in the 90-100 range.

Murkowski, chair of the Senate Energy Committee, has a "lifetime" score with the League of Conservation Voters of 18 percent. She received positive marks in 2015 for voting in favor of a climate change-friendly budget amendment that never made it into final legislation.

Young's lifetime score is 9 percent. In 2015, the environmental group gave him positive marks for two votes, related to trade and clean energy funding.

Erica Martinson

Erica Martinson is Alaska Dispatch News' Washington, DC reporter, and she covers the legislation, regulation and litigation that impact the Last Frontier.  Erica came to ADN after years as a reporter covering energy at POLITICO. Before that, she covered environmental policy at a DC trade publication and worked at several New York dailies.

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