League of Conservation Voters
| Formation | 1969[1] |
|---|---|
| Founder | David Brower[1] |
| Type | 501(c)(4) with associated political action committee and super PAC[1] |
| Purpose | Environmental advocacy |
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
President | Gene Karpinski |
Volunteers | 35,516[citation needed] |
| Website | LCV.org |
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is an American environmental advocacy group. LCV says that it "advocates for sound environmental laws and policies, holds elected officials accountable for their votes and actions, and elects pro-environment candidates." The organization pursues its goals through voter education, voter mobilization, and direct contributions to political candidates. LCV includes 29 state affiliates. LCV was founded in 1969 by environmentalist David Brower. The group's current president is Gene Karpinski. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has over two million members.[3]
Contents
1 Activities
1.1 National Environmental Scorecard
2 Notable donors
3 See also
4 Further reading
5 References
6 External links
Activities
The organization's main activities include voter education, voter mobilization, tracking voting records, endorsing or opposing candidates for political office, and financially contributing to political campaigns.[4]
The related League of Conservation Voters Action Fund (LCVAF) financially supports political candidates, most of whom are members of the Democratic Party.[5] According to the Center for Responsive Politics, LCVAF was the top-spending, non-disclosing liberal group in the 2012 election cycle, investing about $11 million in political advertisements.[6] LCV spent a total of $36 million in 2012.[7]
LCV annually names a "Dirty Dozen," a list of politicians whom the group aims to defeat because of their voting records on conservation issues. The original "Dirty Dozen" list was developed in partnership with Environmental Action in 1970.[8]
LCV strongly opposed many of President George W. Bush's environmental policies.[9]
In 2014, LCV and the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund launched LeadingGreen, a joint initiative to address climate change. In 2015, LeadingGreen was added to the Democracy Alliance's funding portfolio.[10]
LCV strongly opposes the current administration of President Donald J. Trump and its environmental policies.[11] In September 2018, the pac pledged $60 million to help green candidates.[12] Ultimately, in the mid-term elections of 2018, the pac spent $80 million to support "green" candidates through its Victory Fund.[13] They "had enormous success electing its endorsed candidates in suburban districts last fall," wrote The Atlantic on January 3, 2019.[14]
National Environmental Scorecard
LCV tracks the voting records of members of Congress on environmental issues in its National Environmental Scorecard, a legislative scorecard.[15]
The average scores for members of the Democratic Party are historically higher than the scores for members of the Republican Party.[16][17] According to ThinkProgress, a very low score on the Scorecard means a member of Congress has not "used their time in Congress to vote with the environment in mind."[18] In 2002, Kimberley Strassel of The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote that "Democratic politics...is what really drives the league's scorecard."[19]
In a 2012 report, the non-profit Rachel's Network examined the Scorecard scores for male and female members of Congress in the 107th through the 111th Congresses (2001 to 2010). The group found that "women in Congress vote for legislation supporting clean air, clean water, renewable energy, climate action, and public health much more often than their male counterparts."[20][21][22] The report found that some of the difference was attributable to the fact that there were "more women Democrats in both houses of Congress than there are women Republicans," and Democrats favor more pro-environmental policies, but also found that "the difference in voting patterns still persists when gender is isolated within each political party."[20] The report also found that "the gap between Republican men and women narrowed after the 2004 election cycle, which could be attributable to increased partisan pressures."[20]
The Scorecard has been cited by The New York Times,[16]The Washington Post,[23]Bloomberg News,[24][25]U.S. News & World Report,[26]HuffPost,[27][21][22]
and Scientific American magazine.[17]
In 1998, Ilinitch[who?] and collaborators used the Scorecard "to identify Senators and Representatives with unsupportive environmental voting records" in evaluated corporate political contributions as a measure of corporate environmental performance.[28] In 2004, researchers at the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences at Auburn University averaged Scorecard scores across a state's congressional delegation as a proxy variable for the "green-ness" of constituents, and found no significant relationship with the number of Endangered Species Act listings in a state.[29] In 2012, Robert Brulle and his collaborators investigated factors affecting U.S. public concern about the threat of climate change and found that "the message sent to the public by the Republican voting record on environmental bills is very influential...This result provides strong confirmation of the role of elite cues and their influence on public concern about climate change. In an extremely partisan environment, Republican votes against environmental bills legitimate public opinion opposed to action on climate change."[30]
Notable donors
Green Tech Action Fund and the Advocacy Fund are among LCV's donors.[5]
See also
- Sustainability
- Global warming
- Ecology
Further reading
"League of Conservation Voters". FactCheck.org. Annenberg Center for Public Policy. February 13, 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2015..mw-parser-output cite.citationfont-style:inherit.mw-parser-output .citation qquotes:"""""""'""'".mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registrationcolor:#555.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration spanborder-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output code.cs1-codecolor:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-errordisplay:none;font-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-errorfont-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-maintdisplay:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-formatfont-size:95%.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-leftpadding-left:0.2em.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-rightpadding-right:0.2em
References
^ abc "League of Conservation Voters". FactCheck.org. Annenberg Center for Public Policy. February 13, 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
^ "About Us". League of Conservation Voters. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
^ Sabato, Larry; Ernst, Howard (2009). Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections. Infobase Publishing. p. 201. ISBN 9781438109947.
^ "2018 Plan of Action - League of Conservation Voters". League of Conservation Voters. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
^ ab O'Brien, Reity (October 3, 2012). "Nonprofit profile: League of Conservation Voters Inc". Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
^ "League of Conservation Voters". OpenSecrets.org. Center for Responsive Politics. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
^ Beckel, Michael (November 22, 2013). "League of Conservation Voters becoming 'dark money' heavyweight". Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
^ Alligood, Arlene (October 29, 1970). "Two big political issues of Election '70". St. Petersburg Times. Congressional Quarterly. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
^ Pegg, J.R. "League of Conservation Voters Slams Bush Record". Environment News Service. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
^ Vogel, Kenneth; Restuccia, Andrew (April 13, 2015). "Tom Steyer stars as liberal donors gather". Politico. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
^ "2017 Plan of Action - League of Conservation Voters". League of Conservation Voters. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
^ "Environmental group pledges $60M to help green candidates", The Hill, Sep 13, 2018
^ "'A Green Wave': Signs Point to Voters Demanding Action on Climate Change", NECN, Dec 28, 2018
^ "Why the New Democratic Majority Could Work Better Than the Last", The Atlantic, Jan 3, 2019
^ "2012 National Environmental Scorecard Ranks Members Of Congress On Green Issues". HuffPost. February 21, 2013. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
^ ab Shabecoff, Philip (October 7, 1988). "Quayle is Rated on Environment". The New York Times. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
^ ab Otto, Shawn (October 9, 2016). "A Plan to Defend against the War on Science". Scientific American. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
^ Valentine, Katie (October 30, 2015). "These 4 Republican Senators Are Forming A Group To Tackle Climate Change". ThinkProgress. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
^ Strassel, Kimberley (September 6, 2002). "The League of Democratic Voters". The Wall Street Journal.
^ abc "When Women Lead". Rachel's Network. 2016. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
^ ab Spiegelman, Annie (May 10, 2012). "This Mother's Day, Mother Earth Wants You". HuffPost. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
^ ab Michelson, Joan (August 31, 2016). "Happy Anniversary 19th Amendment! How Have Women Voted On Energy And Environment Issues?". HuffPost. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
^ Lee, Gary (October 29, 1996). "Environmental Groups Target Candidates; Nominees' Voting Records on Issues Appear to be Hindering some Election Attempts". The Washington Post.
^ Dlouhy, Jennifer A (December 15, 2016). "Trump Turns to Hunter and Outdoorsman Zinke to Lead Interior". Bloomberg Politics. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
^ Scott, Dean (October 4, 2016). "GOP Senators Battle to Decide Majority, Climate Direction". Environment and Energy Report. Bloomberg BNA. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
^ Neuhauser, Alan (February 11, 2014). "Grade F: Environmental Group Flunks House GOP". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
^ "Overview of the National Environmental Scorecard". League of Conservation Voters. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
^ Ilinitch, Anne Y; Soderstrom, Naomi S; Thomas, Tom E. (1998). "Measuring corporate environmental performance". Journal of Accounting and Public Policy. 17 (4–5): 383–408. doi:10.1016/S0278-4254(98)10012-1. ISSN 0278-4254.
^ Rawls, R. Patrick; Laband, David N. (2004). "A Public Choice Analysis of Endangered Species Listings". Public Choice. 121 (3–4): 263-277. doi:10.1007/s11127-004-9784-4. ISSN 0048-5829.
^ Brulle, Robert J.; Carmichael, Jason; Jenkins, J. Craig (2012). "Shifting public opinion on climate change: an empirical assessment of factors influencing concern over climate change in the U.S., 2002–2010". Climatic Change. 114 (2): 169–188. doi:10.1007/s10584-012-0403-y. ISSN 0165-0009.
External links
- Official website
- LCV National Environmental Scorecard
"League of Conservation Voters Internal Revenue Service filings". ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.
"League of Conservation Voters Education Fund Internal Revenue Service filings". ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.
