WASHINGTON, D.C.: The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) today announced Joe Heck as one of the first members of its trademark Dirty Dozen program for the 2016 cycle. Heck is running for the open Senate seat in Nevada against clean energy leader Catherine Cortez Masto. LCV launched its first Senate independent expenditure in the 2016 cycle with a persuasion canvass campaign in support of Cortez Masto in April.

For 20 years, the Dirty Dozen has targeted candidates— regardless of party affiliation — who consistently side against the environment and are running in races in which LCV has a serious chance to affect the outcome. Last cycle, LCV defeated seven of the 12 Dirty Dozen candidates. In the last presidential year of 2012, LCV defeated 11 of 12.

“Joe Heck is a poster child for the Dirty Dozen, a climate change denier who would rather fight the expansion of clean renewable energy than protect the health of our families,” said Nevada Conservation League Executive Director Andy Maggi. “Nevadans know how critical it is that our next senator prioritize protecting our clean air and water and help make Nevada a solar energy leader, and Joe Heck just doesn’t fit the bill – he would rather represent big polluters, no surprise when they have funded his campaigns to the tune of over $400,000 dollars.”

“Joe Heck is a fitting debut member of the 2016 Dirty Dozen,” said LCV President Gene Karpinski. “Heck’s refusal to accept the settled science regarding humans’ role in the warming of our planet is sadly only the tip of the iceberg. He has consistently voted against clean air and water protections, to block the Clean Power Plan, and to protect polluters’ interests instead of the health of our families, leading to his abysmal 8 percent on LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard. Naming him to the Dirty Dozen means we are ready to communicate just how dangerously out of step Heck is with voters in Nevada.”

Representative Joe Heck is a climate change denier with an abysmal lifetime score of just 8 percent on LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard. He has opposed cutting carbon pollution from power plants, attacked the EPA as “gutless and incompetent”, and repeatedly voted for tax breaks to Big Oil.  He has received over $400,000 from big polluters.

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Paid for by the League of Conservation Voters, www.lcv.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.