Conservation group ranks delegation

A report released Tuesday by a conservation group said Sen. Conrad Burns and Rep. Denny Rehberg, both Montana Republicans, posted dismal voting records on environmental issues in 2005 while Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., voted favorably a little more than half the time.

The Montana Conservation Voters released the League of Conservation Voters' 2005 National Environmental Scorecard, an annual survey that tracks the voting records of House and Senate members on key environmental issues.

The report said Burns had the lowest marks of the Montana delegation with a 5 percent score, while Rehberg scored 11 percent and Baucus scored 55 percent.

A 100 percent score indicates the strongest voting record in support of conservation measures identified by the group. The 2005 national average was 45 percent for House members as well as for senators.

Julia Page of Gardiner, a member of the MCV board of directors, noted that the Montana delegation all voted for the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which she called "one of the most backwards pieces of anti-conservation legislation to pass in recent memory."

The scorecard noted that Baucus, while voting for the energy bill, also voted for an amendment that would have required electric utilities to produce 10 percent of their electricity from clean, renewable sources by 2020. The amendment was stripped from the bill.

Theresa Keaveny, executive director of Montana Conservation Voters, said Montana has passed renewable energy standards while the energy bill doesn't address alternative sources of energy in a meaningful way.

Burns voted to cut funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and programs to clean up water, protect oceans and coasts and conserve agricultural lands, the group said. He also voted against heating assistance for low-income families. In the 108th Congress, Burns received a score of zero.

"The budget resolution that Senator Burns voted for slashed spending on environment and natural resource programs by $3.3 billion, or more than 10 percent below 2005 levels," said Mat Millenbach, Montana Conservation Voters board director, a former Montana state director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Burns spokesman Derek Hunter said the senator has secured funding for researching whirling disease in fish and has worked on recovering streams, Hunter said. Burns is funding the environmental priorities of Montana, which may not be the same priorities at the League of Conservation Voters, he said.

Rehberg, who has never scored above zero in the group's survey until last year, voted for a controversial measure that would have sold public lands, the group said. The proposal, known as the Pombo/Gibbons measure after its sponsors, was contained in a budget bill and passed the House by a narrow margin. The provision was dropped during conference negotiations with the Senate.

Rehberg said he opposed the sale of public lands. He also called the energy bill a "well-rounded piece of legislation" that included clean-coal technology and alternative energy.

The energy bill contains opportunities for loans and grants for new technologies to "help invent our way out of this mess," Rehberg said, but the LCV scorecard doesn't recognize that.

Rehberg said he is an environmentalist, a rancher and a conservationist. "I clearly understand a balanced approach to the environment," he said.

Baucus' opposition to the Pombo/Gibbons plan was instrumental in getting it dropped in the conference committee, the group said.

Baucus' 55 percent score was a little better than his 52 percent score in the 108th Congress.

Baucus spokesman Barrett Kaiser said Baucus helped craft the tax package on the energy bill and is proud of the tax incentives. Baucus was disappointed the report did not take into account his work to defeat a plant to drill for oil and gas on the Rocky Mountain Front, Kaiser said.


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