WASHINGTON – The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) today announced the addition of state Speaker of the House Thom Tillis to LCV’s trademark Dirty Dozen program this cycle. The Dirty Dozen targets 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 11 of the 12 Dirty Dozen candidates.

“Thom Tillis has an extreme anti-environment agenda that only a Koch Brother could love. He denies the proven science of climate change, and is the go-to guy for a secretive Koch-funded group that lobbies against clean energy and environmental safeguards,” said Daniel J. Weiss, LCV Senior Vice President for Campaigns.  “Speaker Tillis could have reduced the threat of drinking water contamination from future coal ash disasters, but instead he let Duke Energy only do the bare minimum clean up.”  

Tillis is a climate change denier who played a key role in passing legislation that would “bar state agencies” from “draw[ing] on the most up-to-date science” on climate change and sea level rise. As Speaker, he also pushed a bad coal ash bill through the state legislature which leaves waters vulnerable to coal ash contamination and ratepayers at risk of clean-up costs.

Tillis is on the board of directors for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a secretive Koch-funded group that lobbies against environmental protections and clean energy. As a News Observer editorial put it, “ALEC’s guy is Thom Tillis.” He received a 0 percent score on the 2013 North Carolina League of Conservation Voters scorecard, and has a 26 percent lifetime score. 

In contrast, Tillis’ opponent, Senator Kay Hagan, has earned an 85% score on LCV’s 2013 National Environmental Scorecard and an 84% lifetime score. The non-partisan Scorecard is a nationally accepted yardstick used to rate members of Congress on environmental and clean energy issues. Based on key environmental votes in the House and Senate, it is often used by the media to quickly describe a Member’s record. For more information, visit https://scorecard.lcv.org.

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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.