“I’m glad to hear he’s a better steward in his own district,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld.

Sittenfeld, the legislative director for the League of Conservation Voters in Washington D.C., said Renzi has a terrible rating on national environmental issues. The League identifies itself as is a bipartisan organization working for clean air, clean water and a safe future; it ranks politicians on a zero to100 scale on their performance on environmental issues. Renzi has an extremely low 7 percent score since entering Congress and a rock-bottom 3 percent for last year’s session. Compare that with the environmental scores for others in the Arizona delegation: Sen. John McCain scores 41 percent; Sen. Jon Kyl, 11 percent; Rep. Ed Pastor, 92 percent and Rep. Raul Grijalva, 100 percent.

Sittenfeld said Renzi seems more concerned with the oil and gas industry rather than with his constituents, and she points to Renzi’s votes against clean air, clean water and global warming solutions. Sittenfeld said in 2005 Renzi voted against clean air when he voted for the Gasoline for America’s Security Act of 2005. She said his vote gave unnecessary extensions for cleanups.

“This put people’s health at risk and delayed the use of cleaner fuels,” she said.

In 2006 Renzi voted against an amendment to the Dept. of Interior’s appropriations bill to protect clean water across the country, she said. This amendment would have forced the EPA to rescind a directive that states that clean water rules should not apply to small bodies of water. She noted that the bill passed overwhelmingly with Republican support.

Sittenfeld said Renzi also voted to lift the moratorium on drilling off the east and west coasts, perpetuating America’s dependence on oil and putting ecosystems at risk.

Renzi declined to answer the League’s specific criticisms of himself, but said he does not believe it is a fair, balanced assessment of his environmental record.

“The League of Conservation Voters has its own opinion. It doesn’t show how much I care about the environment,” he said. “They don’t look at how hard the Natural Resources Committee works at preserving Fossil Creek and other areas important to Arizona. A lot of our efforts are outside of their scoring.”

Aside from working to preserve Fossil Creek, Renzi said he has helped increase the budget for the Grand Canyon National Park, fought to expand the Petrified National Forest and worked on helping preserve other important places in Arizona.

“I’ve tried to bring a balanced approach,” he said. “I’m an outdoors person.”

Jason Williams, Director for the Central Mountain Sonoran Region for the Arizona Wilderness Coalition, can’t praise Renzi enough for the congressman’s role in seeking to designate Fossil Creek as a Wild and Scenic river. This designation would give special protection to the creek.

“Renzi was spectacular. He stepped up in the House,” he said. Williams said all but two representatives in the Arizona delegation supported the measure, and he credits Renzi for that leadership.

The measure made proposal too late last year, but Renzi said the bill to preserve Fossil Creek should be heard this summer. “Both Republicans and Democrats support it,” he said. “I’ve hiked down there and it’s phenomenal. It’s a pristine jewel that needs to be protected.”

Williams also praises Renzi for supporting better funding for the National Landscape Conservation System, a part of the Bureau of Land Management. The White House proposed a $49 million budget for the NLCS, which would have been its smallest budget ever. Renzi said BLM needs better funding to ensure special areas receive protection and are not ruined by neglect.

“This will help preserve important riparian areas in Arizona,” Williams said. “It will also help protect sites with Native American artifacts.”

Williams said Renzi’s support for increasing funding for NLCS is tremendous. “He wants to see this land protected and that makes him a tremendous asset. He cares about public lands,” he said. “It’s inspiring to see that this is a bipartisan issue.”

Williams said that, locally, Renzi is good on the environment, jobs and Native American issues. He noted that he disagrees with Renzi on other issues, such as arctic drilling and endangered species protection. “We don’t talk about what we disagree on, but about what we agree on,” he said.

Quinn McKew, director of River Heritage with American Rivers, gives Renzi high marks for the same reasons as Williams. She said Renzi has been a great leader for seeking the Wild and Scenic designation for Fossil Creek, noting that he was the one who introduced the bill in the House both last year and this year.

“Renzi is a champion for Fossil Creek,” she said.

McKew said American Rivers is also concerned about the NLCS budget and gives Renzi credit for supporting an increase in that budget. “He’s been really good to work with on NLCS and Fossil Creek,” she said. “Renzi is trying to look out for special areas in Arizona.”

Dan Campbell, Verde River Program Manager for the Nature Conservancy, said he knows that, nationally, Renzi is not thought of favorably on environmental issues, but he praises Renzi for seeking more protection of the Verde River and the Upper San Pedro River. Renzi helped take an alfalfa field out of production that was using 4,000 acre feet of water per year from the San Pedro. He said it is important to preserve the San Pedro River because it is a greenway for endangered species and it is one of the best ecotourism destinations in the Southwest, along with Ramsey Canyon. Campbell noted that Sen. John McCain has always been supportive of protecting Arizona’s rivers and feels Renzi might be following in his shoes.

Tom Slaback, Prescott area spokesman for the Sierra Club, isn’t buying it. He criticizes Renzi for his stance on forests and the Bella Terra subdivision on Oak Creek, and he thinks Renzi is a johnny-come-lately on some environmental issues.

Slaback said Renzi supported a so-called Healthy Forest Initiative that was supposed to prevent forest fires and create healthy forests. “But under the guise of healthy forests they have started thinning far away from anything,” he said. Slaback said thinning was supposed to happen near cities to keep them from burning, but pointed out workers are thinning forests on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

“They’re going after big trees in Prescott National Forest, the Kaibab and elsewhere,” he said.

Renzi said the Healthy Forest Initiative focuses on small growth trees, but that some middle-sized trees must be included to make the timber sales profitable or companies won’t bid for the thinning. He said he opposes the cutting of large-growth trees. He added that the HFI should get more funding for prevention and thinning to prevent fires.

Slaback said he has recently written Renzi three times about the Bella Terra subdivision in Oak Creek because it would impact Red Rock Crossing. “We want to shut it down because of the [negative] impact on Oak Creek,” he said.

Renzi told Read It Here that the Bella Terra subdivision question is a state issue that the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is regulating.

Though Renzi hasn’t responded directly to Slaback’s letters regarding the subdivision, Slaback credits Renzi with responding to his calls for not allowing offshore drilling. But, he said, Renzi avoided the question, only noting that he drives a hybrid Prius passenger car.

Renzi said he was at the proposed drilling site in Alaska and met with 450 indigenous people; only two were opposed to the drilling. He said if there are proven reserves and oil companies use the best equipment without oil spills, then the nation should consider drilling to help lower energy dependence on other countries.

“I’m worried because 60 percent of our oil comes from foreign countries,” Renzi said, but emphasized that drilling in Alaska “is not an absolute solution” to America’s energy problems.

Slaback accused Renzi of seeing the environmental light only since the last election. “He sees the writing on the wall for his previous unpopular environmental stances,” Slaback said. “He’s trying to look green because it’s politically practical.”

Steve Kling, president of the Verde River Citizens Alliance, agrees with Slaback that Renzi did not have a strong environmental record before the past election. He notes a recent political flier from Renzi’s office focuses on Renzi’s support of Fossil Creek and solar power projects for residential use in the district.

“I was pleased to receive the mailer,” Kling said. “It shows the environmental groups are having an impact and Renzi is going green.”

Regardless of the motivation, Renzi indeed appears to be “green” at the local level, at least. In addition to his other local green actions, he sponsored a bill to protect Walnut Canyon, an area special to the Navajo and Hopi tribes. He continues to work with the City of Flagstaff and Coconino County on a bill that would drive a study of how best to manage Walnut Canyon and the area around it. Renzi said there is a bipartisan effort to protect the watershed there, as well as the many artifacts in the canyon.

On the bigger issues, however, Renzi is a different shade of green, and his particular hue could have a major impact on the Endangered Species Act – and his employment. Environmentalists generally view Republican “protection” of the ESA as the equivalent of allowing the fox to guard the hen house, and former California Representative Richard Pombo, a Republican, last year found himself voted out of office after years of trying to “improve” the Act to benefit developers. Now Renzi has his eyes on the ESA.

Renzi said he thinks reasonable people believe the Endangered Species Act can be improved to save more species and to cut through the bureaucracy. “Both Republicans and Democrats are coming together on this,” he said. “This can be fixed. It can be refined, but I don’t think it will happen this session.”

(Stan Bindell is a lucky guy because he lives in two places: Chino Valley and Polacca on the Hopi Reservation.)

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