League of Conservation Voters Releases National Environmental Scorecard For Michigan Delegation
2024 Scores highlight Michigan delegation’s votes on environmental priorities
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Today, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters released the Michigan delegation’s scores for the League of Conservation Voters’ 2024 National Environmental Scorecard highlighting how some members chose to protect the environment and defend our democracy, while others failed to do so. Since 1970, LCV’s Scorecard has been the primary yardstick for evaluating the environmental records of members of Congress. It is available for download in English here, in Spanish here, and online in both languages at scorecard.lcv.org.
The 2024 Scorecard shows that our state’s delegation fought back against attacks on our democracy and environmental protections as extremist lawmakers in the House embraced chaos and pushed radical policies in direct opposition to American interests, resulting in the least productive Congress in recent history. For the most part, Michigan’s delegation stood up for our values, voting against cuts to clean energy investments and a House Republican agenda that catered to Big Polluters and corporate interests. Despite intentional gridlock caused by the most extreme members of the House, our senators continued to confirm strong, well-qualified federal judges, more than any other president and Senate in a recent four-year period.
“In the U.S. House, we saw numerous attacks on common sense air and water protections that are saving Michiganders money. Thankfully some members of the Michigan delegation stepped up to stop these attacks on our environment – and they have the scores to show for it,” said Bentley Johnson, federal government affairs director for the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. “Now, as the Trump administration accelerates attacks on clean energy and environmental safeguards, Michigan needs champions in Congress to stand up and hold our chief executive to account. We must make it clear that we won’t stand for attacks on our air and water and our progress toward cleaner, more affordable energy.”
“2024 saw the most extreme members of the House Republicans again manufacturing wasteful, cruel chaos at the expense of the health and safety of our environment, our democracy, and our economy,” said LCV Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Tiernan Sittenfeld. “Unfortunately, we must look at 2024’s mostly fruitless attempts to provide more giveaways to Big Oil and other polluters while leaving communities across the country less safe as a trial run for what Trump and his captured Congressional leadership will do in 2025.”
For the third year, the 2024 Scorecard highlights the leadership of the Tri-Caucus. Leadership of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) scored an average of 97% on the 2024 Scorecard. These champions in Congress led and supported many of the climate, conservation, environmental justice, and equitable democracy bills and initiatives in 2024, in addition to helping to educate constituents and connect communities to the transformational investments within the affordable clean energy plan.
In 2024, extreme weather, storms, and catastrophic flooding continued to affect Michigan communities. If we do nothing to protect the progress we have made and keep investing in our communities, we will not be able to avoid the worst impacts of the accelerating climate crisis.
This year, the 2024 Scorecard includes eight Senate votes, half of which were confirmations of qualified, diverse judges and other nominees and half were attacks on environmental protections. In the House, LCV scored 33 votes, 14 of which were poison pill policy amendments on government funding bills or the extreme underlying bills themselves, two of which were using or further weaponizing the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to block environmental safeguards, and the rest undermined programs and laws that advance a safe climate, environment, and democracy.
The full delegation’s scores for 2023 are:
SENATE:
Senator Debbie Stabenow – 100 percent
Senator Gary Peters – 100 percent
HOUSE:
Representative Jack Bergman (CD -1) – 6 percent
Representative John Moolenaar (CD – 2) – 6 percent
Representative Hillary Scholten (CD – 3) – 91 percent
Representative Bill Huizenga(CD – 4) – 0 percent
Representative Tim Walberg (CD – 5) – 3 percent
Representative Debbie Dingell (CD – 6) – 100 percent
Representative Elissa Slotkin*(CD – 7) – 94 percent
Representative Dan Kildee* (CD – 8) – 97 percent
Representative Lisa McClain (CD – 9) – 0 percent
Representative John James (CD – 10) – 6 percent
Representative Haley Stevens (CD – 11) – 100 percent
Representative Rashida Tlaib (CD – 12) – 97 percent
Representative Shri Thanedar (CD – 13) – 100 percent
* – No longer serving in U.S. House of Representatives
LCV has published a National Environmental Scorecard every Congress since 1970. The Scorecard represents the consensus of experts from more than 20 respected environmental and conservation organizations who selected the key votes on which members of Congress should be scored. LCV scores votes on the most important issues of the year, including energy, climate change, environmental justice, public health, public lands and wildlife conservation, democracy, and spending for environmental programs. The votes included in the Scorecard presented members of Congress with a real choice and help distinguish which legislators are working for environmental protection. More information on individual votes and the Scorecard archive can be found at scorecard.lcv.org.