CVNM News:
SANTA FE — Wednesday, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) released the New Mexico delegation’s scores for the LCV 2024 National Environmental Scorecard, highlighting our state’s leaders’ work to protect our environment despite the extremism and chaos from anti-environmental members of Congress. Since 1970, LCV’s Scorecard has been the primary yardstick for evaluating the environmental records of members of Congress.
“The 2024 Scorecard shows that New Mexico’s Congressional delegation stood up for our values, voting against cuts to clean energy investments, confirming strong, well-qualified federal judges, and protecting voting access,” Conservation Voters New Mexico CEO Demis Foster said. “We are in the middle of our state legislative session where our state Champions are working to build a brighter future for everyday New Mexicans. New Mexicans should be proud to have leaders like Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan, and Representatives Melanie Stansbury, Teresa Leger Fernandez and Gabe Vasquez to keep fighting for everyone in our state.”
“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, 2024’s mostly fruitless attempts to provide more giveaways to Big Oil and other polluters while leaving communities across the country were a trial run for what Trump and his captured Congressional leadership are doing in 2025.”
The full delegation’s scores for 2024 are:
- Senator Martin Heinrich – 100 percent
- Senator Ben Ray Luján – 100 percent
- Representative Melanie Stansbury – 88 percent
- Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez – 100 percent
- Representative Gabe Vasquez – 94 percent
BACKGROUND
For the third year, the 2024 Scorecard highlights the leadership of the Tri-Caucus: the 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.
CVNM also publishes an annual Conservation Scorecard for members of the State Legislature.