President Donald Trump, according to Donald Trump, is “a very big person when it comes to the environment.” It’s a tenuous assertion, one that Trump has attempted to back up with unsubstantiated claims about environmental awards. Meanwhile, Trump campaigned on — and has set about implementing — a platform of decreased environmental regulation and increased fossil fuel production.
But even if Trump is judged not by his own actions, but the actions of those he surrounds himself with, his record on environmental issues still looks dismal. According to an analysis of congressional voting records released Thursday by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), Trump’s allies in Congress — the lawmakers he has tapped for crucial cabinet positions or leaned on for congressional support — have some of the worst environmental voting records in Congress.
Each year, LCV releases a scorecard cataloging how each member of Congress voted on key pieces of environmental legislation. In 2016, members of the House, on average, voted for environmental legislation — or against anti-environmental legislation — 43 percent of the time. The Senate was slightly higher, with members voting in line with environmental priorities 50 percent of the time.
But members of Congress tapped by Trump to fill cabinet positions — or members of Congress who pledged their support for the president early in the campaign, a group known as the “Trump Caucus” — score considerably below the national average. None of Trump’s appointees or early-backers break 5 percent in the LCV scorecard — and many recorded scores of 0 for the 2016 legislative session.
When it comes to cabinet appointees, Trump’s pick for Interior Secretary, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), earned the highest score in 2016, with 5 percent. He supported three bills that were included in the 2016 scorecard, voting to support clean energy funding, disaster funding for Flint, and permanent authorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).
Former Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo (R), who was tapped to head up the CIA, scored 3 percent, voting with pro-environment legislation just once. Pompeo is also a politician with deep ties to petrochemical billionaires Charles and David Koch, who have donated heavily to his political campaigns. He has rejected the mainstream scientific consensus on climate change in the past, and refused to answer a question about climate change during his confirmation hearing, arguing that his role as CIA Director would have little to do with climate change. That opinion is not shared by many in the national security community, which views climate change as a threat multiplier that could endanger national and international security.
Compared to Trump’s other cabinet appointees, however, Zinke and Pompeo seem like staunch environmentalists. Former Alabama Sen. and current Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former Georgia Rep. and current Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, and former South Carolina Rep. and Director of the Office of Budget Management Mick Mulvaney all scored 0 percent, meaning not once did any of these legislators cast a pro-environmental vote during the 2016 legislative session.
“As the results of the 2016 Scorecard indicate, some of the most anti-environmental member of the U.S. House and Senate are now part of the most anti-environmental cabinet in history, including Ryan Zinke with a 5 percent and Tom Price, Mick Mulvaney, and Jeff Sessions with a 0 percent,” Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs for the League of Conservation Voters told ThinkProgress. “We are ready to fight both the Trump administration and the extreme Republican leadership in Congress to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the lands and wildlife we cherish.”
But it’s not just Trump’s appointees with dismal records on environmental voting. The so-called “Trump Caucus,” made up of earlier backers of the president, also boasts uniquely low scores on the 2016 scorecard.
Of Trump’s earliest endorsers, Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA) has the most environmental voting record, voting in line with environmental priorities 5 percent of the time. The rest of the so-called Trump caucus, including Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) — who Trump has called his liaison in Congress — Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), and Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) scored 0 percent. Other early supporters, include Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), who scored 3 percent, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who scored 3 percent, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), who scored 0 percent.
For an administration showing an unprecedented amount of hostility towards environmental regulations and the agencies that implement them, the anti-environmental record of these appointees and supporters is likely a feature, not a bug. Meanwhile, a recent poll from Pew shows a majority of Americans favor stricter environmental laws and regulations.