One of the nation's largest environmental groups sees Rep. Karen Shepherd, D-Utah, as a "hero" - but says other Utah members of Congress are "zeros."
Actually, Rep. Bill Orton, D-Utah, barely escaped being a zero. The League of Conservation Voters, in a scorecard it released this week, considered any member a "zero" if he voted with it less than 30 percent of the time on 20 key votes - and Orton voted with the group exactly 30 percent of the time.On the other hand, Shepherd voted with the group 100 percent of the time. She was one of only nine of the House's 435 members with a perfect score.
And many of those votes came on issues highly controversial in the West.
They included voting to support proposed public land reforms (which included more than doubling grazing fees), mining law reform (which many miners say will force them off public lands) and creating the National Biological Survey (which opponents worry is designed to find endangered species as a tool to restrict use of public lands).
"She really is quite pleased with the ranking because it covers a wide range of issues from protecting the Everglades to votes on nuclear and coal power," said Michael Burke, Shepherd's administrative assistant.
"She doesn't view it as problemmatic at all. It is strongly in favor of strong environmental protection," he said.
On the other end of the spectrum, Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, tied with five other members for the lowest score given by the group. He voted with it only 5 percent of the time.
The only vote of 20 measured by the group where Hansen supported the environmentalists' position was to oppose the Advance Solid Rocket Motor Program, which would have transfered jobs from Thiokol in his district to a new plant in Mississippi.
Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, R-Utah, voted with the group only 13 percent of the time - also receiving the title of "zeros" from the group.