Island delegation rates high
By Pete Pichaske
with environmentalist group
Phillips News ServiceWASHINGTON -- Hawaii's all-Democratic congressional delegation remains one of the greenest in Congress, compiling impressive scores in ratings released today by the League of Conservation Voters.
Hawaii's House delegation had the seventh highest average in the nation, while its senators had the 11th highest average, according to the league's scorecard of environmental votes made in the past two years.
Sen. Daniel Akaka had the highest score of the four: an 88, which means he agreed with the league's position on 88 percent of the votes counted. Akaka was followed by Rep. Patsy Mink (86), Rep. Neil Abercrombie (79) and Sen. Daniel Inouye (60).
Nationally, the House average was 47, the Senate average 45.
The league, the political arm of the nation's best-known environmental groups, counted such votes as funding for environmental programs, mining reform and controls on commercial logging.
Deb Callahan, the organization's president, decried the generally low scores of most Republicans in the GOP-controlled Congress.
"For the most part, Congress is not living up to our expectations on the environment," she said.
Meanwhile, the League of Private Property Voters, which lobbies for the rights of landowners, released its own scorecard today to counter the environmentalists' efforts.
The private property group's scores in general were the opposite of the conservation group's, with Hawaii's lawmakers, especially Mink, Abercrombie and Akaka, scoring well below average.
Myron Ebell, policy director for one of the private property group's members, Frontiers of Freedom, dismissed the League of Conservation Voters as "an interest group for the Democratic Party" that is "no longer grass roots."
