We asked our more that 260,000 members to tell us who they wanted to be on LCV's 2008 Dirty Dozen.  The results of our online survey are in: Mitch McConnell -- the people's choice of the worst members of Congress on the environment.

He joins Senator Jim Inhofe and Congressman Joe Knollenberg in this infamous designation.

In the coming weeks we will be naming the rest of this year's Dirty Dozen.  Stay tuned and join the League of Conservation Voters at www.lcv.org

Dan Lungren (R CA-03) continues to have an abysmal voting record on the environment.  Lungren just received a shameful 5% rating from the League of Conservation Voters.  I wonder how he scored so "high" with his continued voting for the Bush Party line?  Now that the Republican registration margin over the Dems in his congressional district is the lowest in CA (less than 5%), this seat is more vulnerable than ever!  Will Lungren be the next Pombo?

All the more reason to vote for him as a member of the League of Conservation Voters' Dirty Dozen.  Your vote for Lungren will help us get Dr. Bill Durston elected to Congress.

Please take a moment to nominate Dan Lungren as one of the worst of the worst when it comes to protecting our environment!

You can nominate him here: http://lcv.org/...

Why nominate him?  Read on...

The Norwegian Nobel Committee’s announcement last Friday seemed to unleash a deluge of Gorephoria. At a get-together of about 75 people that my wife and I attended on the weekend, talk about Al Gore verged on the ecstatic, and not just from party-goers who normally can’t stop discussing politics. Everybody seemed ...well...joyful. And that was before more than a couple of wine bottles had been emptied. The talk itself ranged fairly widely, but what seemed clear in everyone’s comments was a sense of vindication.

Don’t forget to join DailyKos Environmentalists.

In her long-running "Breaking ... the Earth series, jillian took note this past week of a boatload of traditional media stories about the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in BREAKING!...the Earth (Nobel version): Colorado scientists thrilled with Nobel win. Co-winners of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore are dozens of researchers from Colorado's powerhouse atmospheric-science institutions. Denver Rocky Mountain News." Her other installment in the series was BREAKING!...the Earth (I've got a cold version): "Climate change making Mont Blanc even higher. "Western Europe's highest mountain, Mont Blanc, is taller than ever due to snow piled atop its summit, in what experts meeting in France have described as a climate change-related phenomenon. Agence France-Presse."

On Tuesday, the League of Conservation Voters named the first two members of the "Dirty Dozen" list of the 12 worst members of Congress on environmental issues.

The first additions to the 2008 Dirty Dozen are Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) and Congressman Joe Knollenberg (R-MI09).

We all know where Inhofe stands on the environment. If you can justify ignoring the threat of global warming by claiming it is a scam to raise the Weather Channel's ratings, then you can justify voting against any environmental protections. However, I was very glad to see the LCV recognize that Joe Knollenberg is in the same class as Inhofe.

You may not have heard of Joe Knollenberg. He is the Republican Ranking Member of an Appropriations Sub Committee, and brags about all the money he has "secured" for local interests, taking advantage of earmarks, on his website. But his record on issues important to 9th district voters is atrocious. The LCV gives him a lifetime score of just 7%.

In fact, an amendment that bans the EPA from hosting educational seminars about global warming is known as the "Knollenberg Amendment".

I am David Sandretti, Communications Director with the League of Conservation Voters -- the independent political voice for the environment.   You can find out more about LCV at www.lcv.org.  

I joined LCV earlier this year after serving in the Senate for ten years as Communications Director for Sen. Barbara Boxer and two years as Press Secretary for Sen. Russ Feingold.