RALEIGH, N.C.— Today, the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters released the NC delegation’s scores for the League of Conservation Voters’ 2024 National Environmental Scorecard, highlighting that some members of Congress chose to champion the environment and protect 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 some of our state’s delegation supported attacks on our democracy and environmental protections. For the second year in a row, extreme members in the House of Representatives embraced chaos. They pushed messaging bills and radical amendments on government funding that were so harmful their own leadership pulled them on more than one occasion — resulting in the least productive Congress in recent history.
Senators Ted Budd and Thom Tillis, as well as Representatives Greg Murphy, Virginia Foxx, David Rouzer, Dan Bishop, Richard Hudson, Patrick McHenry, and Chuck Edwards failed to stand up for NC’s values, voting to cut clean energy investments and an agenda that catered to Big Polluters and corporate interests.
“Despite the extremism and chaos in Congress today, we know Representatives Adams, Foushee, Ross, Manning, Nickel, and Jackson worked every day to protect our air and water,” said NCLCV’s Executive Director Carrie Clark. “Unfortunately, nine of NC’s national elected officials used their votes to cater to Big Polluters and right-wing extremists. Here at home, energy bills are rising, and many communities are still suffering from Hurricane Helene. North Carolinians must hold our leaders accountable for continually putting polluters over people. We will continue to work with our state’s environmental champions to fight rising energy prices and deliver meaningful action on addressing the climate crisis.”
“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.
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 2024 are:
Senator Ted Budd – 0 percent
Senator Thom Tillis – 0 percent
Representative Don Davis – 64 percent
Representative Deborah Ross – 100 percent
Representative Greg Murphy – 0 percent
Representative Valerie Foushee – 100 percent
Representative Virginia Foxx – 0 percent
Representative Kathy Manning – 94 percent
Representative David Rouzer – 0 percent
Representative Dan Bishop – 0 percent
Representative Richard Hudson – 0 percent
Representative Patrick McHenry – 6 percent
Representative Chuck Edwards – 6 percent
Representative Alma Adams – 100 percent
Representative Wiley Nickel – 93 percent
Representative Jeff Jackson – 91 percent
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.
