Senators Like Elizabeth Warren Aren’t Leading On Climate Change, Report Says

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Could Senator Elizabeth Warren be doing more to lead on climate change?

CREDIT: AP

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) might be a favorite of the progressive left, but when it comes to climate change, a new report finds her track record on the issue to be fairly middle-of-the-road. And Warren isn’t the only prominent Democrat lagging behind when it comes to climate action — according to the report, many Senators expected to take positions of leadership in 2017 aren’t leaders for climate action.

The report, released yesterday by the liberal super PAC Climate Hawks Vote, ranked Senate Democrats not just on their voting record, but on their leadership record — a more intangible metric meant to measure how a Senator prioritizes the issue of climate change. Senators with a higher leadership scores are those that are more publicly engaged with climate change, doing things like introducing climate-focused bills, giving climate-focused speeches on the Senate floor, or issuing press releases about climate issues.

The group ranked Senators — all Democrats and three Republicans — on a scale from +100 (for strongest climate leadership) to -100 (for negative climate leadership). Public engagement factors were weighted more heavily than other metrics.

“Our goal is to elect climate hawk leaders — those who prioritize and speak on the climate crisis — not just those who follow leaders’ directions on the rare occasions that climate comes up for a vote and otherwise remain silent,” the report stated.

Topping the list in the 114th Congress with a score of +71 was Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who delivers weekly speeches on climate change on the floor of the Senate (according to the Huffington Post, he gave his 97th speech on the subject Tuesday). In January, Whitehouse introduced an amendment to a bill approving the Keystone XL Pipeline that forced Senate Republicans to go on record stating whether or not they believe climate change to be real. Behind Whitehouse, Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) rounded out the top five.

Sanders, who recently announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, actually edged out Whitehouse for the top spot during the 113th Congress, sponsoring 6 bills related to climate change, according to the report. Like Whitehouse, Sanders also introduced an amendment to the Senate’s Keystone XL bill in January, stating that climate change is “already causing severe problems all over the world,” and that “we have a window of opportunity and we have to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency.”

The average score for the 114th Congress — which takes into account actions through March 31 — was +22.5, but several prominent senators that might assume leadership roles in 2017 were given scores below the Senate average. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) was given a +20, a score lowered by her lack of public engagement on climate change. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who votes in favor of climate change action but rarely leads on the issue, received a +21. Warren, who recently joined the Energy and Natural Resources committee, scored just above-average with a +25.

“Some Senate observers have expected Warren to discuss climate change more this year now that she is on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee,” the report said, “but so far she’s only made one public statement, engaged in minimal press release work, not written any bills, and co-sponsored very few bills.”

Seven Democrats scored negative points, according to Climate Hawk Vote’s metrics. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), a proponent of Keystone XL and coal production, ranked last, with a score of -29. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who has called President Obama’s action on climate change “a war on America“, was second from the bottom with a score of -26.

As a super PAC, Climate Hawks Vote works toward its goal of electing climate leaders in two ways: maintaining accountability of elected officials through scorecards, and helping to elect those they deem “climate hawks” through endorsements and fieldwork. Endorsements for candidates, the group told ThinkProgress, won’t be decided until this summer.

“We hope that it’ll encourage more politicians to be proactive on climate — speak out and lead on the greatest challenge facing the next few generations of humanity,” the group said of the scorecard. “And when we do our electoral work next year, we’ll prioritize endorsements of those who score well over those who don’t.”

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A previous version of this article misstated the number of climate-related bills Sanders introduced during the 113th Congress. It was 6 bills, not 19.

The post Senators Like Elizabeth Warren Aren’t Leading On Climate Change, Report Says appeared first on ThinkProgress.