Letter to the Editor: Walden is failing

It’s a big reason I moved to the Pacific Northwest — that level of damage had not yet been done here and politicians, for the most part, represented the majority of citizens who wanted to prevent it.

However, Congressman Greg Walden cannot be included in that club, as indicated by the recently released League of Conservation Voters National Environmental Scorecard.

The scorecard, established in 1970, represents the consensus of experts from about 20 respected environmental and conservation organizations who select the key votes on which members of Congress should be scored.

LCV tallies votes on the most important issues of the year, including energy, climate change, public health, public lands and wildlife conservation, and spending for environmental programs. By visiting scorecard.lcv.org, you can see every vote your House and Senate representatives made with an explanation of the topic. It’s also available in Spanish.

Walden voted in favor of the environment a mere nine percent of the time — his score for 2017 as well as over his political lifetime (starting in 1999). That’s nine percent of 411 votes.

Because many of these votes addressed issues such as climate change, protecting people from dirty energy and toxins and the public’s right to know if they are at risk, I have to surmise that Walden is a man who doesn’t care much about his constituents, the planet, or the future our children will inherit.

Tracie Hornung

Mt. Hood/Parkdale