Wyoming’s three members of congress each earned a zero on the League of Conservation Voters scorecard for 2006, the only state delegation to receive such a low ranking, the league said Wednesday.

The delegation, comprised of U.S. Sens. Craig Thomas and Mike Enzi and U.S. Rep Barbara Cubin, “is far out of step with mainstream American values, and unworthy of the people of Wyoming,” league president Gene Karpinski said in a statement released with the scorecard. The average for other delegations was 48 percent for House members, 45 percent for senators.

The league is a coalition of conservation groups that has been publishing the scorecard since the first Earth Day in 1970. Senators were ranked on seven votes cast on measures ranging from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to environmental funding to public health.

In the House, rankings were based on offshore drilling votes, toxic release measures and clean water, among others. A dozen House votes were used in the calculation.

Karpinski called Wyoming’s triple-zero score “a dubious distinction.”

Thomas spokesman Cameron Hardy challenged the score, and the notion of scorecards in general.

“They're not representative of what the people of Wyoming's interests are as a whole,” Hardy said of the vote count. Thomas, for example, favors energy development “but also favors protecting special places in Wyoming and seeking a balance,” he said.

It’s pretty easy to point out that Sen. Thomas has done a great deal to protect national parks, Hardy said. The senator has secured funding for Yellowstone and Grand Teton during his years in Washington, for example.

He also has opposed oil and gas leasing in the Wyoming Range and favors protecting the Jack Morrow Hills in the Red Desert, another fragile area that is coveted by the oil and gas industry. Hardy said when Wyoming residents want their environment protected, they come to the senator and he responds.

Cubin delivered a rebuttal statement as well.

“When deciding how to cast my vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, I listen to the people of Wyoming, not liberal groups like the League of Conservation Voters,” she said. “Like most Wyomingites, I believe that it is important to decrease our dependency on foreign sources of energy by producing additional domestic resources in an environmentally sound manner. The LCV does not.”

Cubin said she believes in increasing the number of refineries operating in the U.S. and spreading them out, particularly in the West. She said she also backs Western industries like timber and agriculture, which she believes can operate while protecting public lands.

“Like most Wyomingites I believe in the Western tradition of multiple use policies on public lands and less federal government influence on private industry,” she said. “I stand by my voting record and by the people of Wyoming.”

Enzi representatives could not be reached immediately Wednesday afternoon.

The conservation league criticized the delegation for living in the past.

“During this past session of Congress, Sens. Enzi and Thomas, along with Rep. Cubin, have repeatedly supported energy policies that do nothing to move this country forward toward a clean energy future, and they once again placed special interests over the best interests of Wyoming families,” Karpinski said. “The American people want our leaders in Washington to implement real solutions to our energy challenges, such as investing in renewable energy like wind and solar power, but most of this year's energy debate in Congress focused on backwards looking policies like offshore drilling.

“It’s time for Congress to harness America's ingenuity and technological know-how to promote clean energy that protects the environment and reinvigorates the economy,” Karpinski said.

The tally reflects votes taken in the second session of the 109th Congress.