House Republicans — 191 Votes Against the Environment in 2011

A new report notes that House Republicans voted a record 191 times against the environment in 2011. The report, logically, called this “the worst environmental record of any Congress in history.”

“Out of the 770 legislative roll call votes taken in the House this year, ‘more than one out of every five’ were votes against the environment,” Think Progress notes. “Ninety-four percent of Republicans chose the anti-environment position on each vote.” 141 votes were against the Environmental Protect Agency, which sees overwhelming support from the American public.

More details from the report:

– 27 votes to block action to address climate change, including votes to overturn EPA’s scientific findings that climate change endangers human health and welfare; to block EPA from regulating carbon pollution from power plants, oil refineries, and vehicles; to prevent the United States from participating in international climate negotiations; and even to cut funding for basic climate science..

– 77 votes to undermine Clean Air Act protections, including votes to repeal the health-based standards that are the heart of the Clean Air Act and to block EPA regulation of toxic mercury and other harmful emissions from power plants, incinerators, industrial boilers, cement plants, and mining operations.

– 28 votes to undermine Clean Water Act protections, including votes to strip EPA of authority to set water quality standards and enforce limits on industrial discharges; to repeal EPA’s authority to stop mountaintop removal mining disposal; and to block EPA from protecting headwaters and wetlands that flow into navigable waters.

– 47 votes to weaken protection of public lands and coastal waters, including votes to curtail environmental review of offshore drilling; to halt reviews of public lands for possible wilderness designations; and to remove protections for salmon, wolves, and other species.

…

[House Republicans] also voted to allow unsafe disposal of toxic coal ash; to short-circuit environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline; to erect barriers to promulgation of new regulations that protect health and the environment; and to cut funding for environmental protection.

They’ve also attacked the Department of Energy in numerous ways, and regulation of nuclear power plants.

Of course, the year is not over, and they are actually trying to do as much environmental damage as they can before January 1, even if that means infiltrating important spending and tax cut bills — guess they don’t want to lose their record any time soon.

House Speaker Republican John Boehner via republicanconference