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New Hampshire is known for big sky, gleaming snow and lakes that shimmer in the sun. And the state's Congressional representatives' scores on a recently released annual environmental report are just as bright.

Reps. Paul W. Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter, Democrats, earned perfect scores on this year's Environment America Congressional Scorecard.

Compiled by a national federation of state-based advocacy groups, the scorecard measures politicians' stances on several environment-related issues between March 2007 and February 2008.

Votes used for the tallies were on "big-ticket" items, chosen according to their relevance to Environment America's political priorities, according to Erika K. Staaf, who works as an advocate for the state organization Environment New Hampshire.

In each of 13 House votes, which ran the gamut from clean-water funding to offshore drilling, Hodes and Shea-Porter stood on what Environment America classified as the Earth-friendly side of the fence.

"Issues around energy and the environment are especially important and dear to the people I represent in New Hampshire," said Hodes, whose district includes Cheshire County, Thursday. "We are a state whose quality of life is intimately tied to our natural environment and always has been."

Some of Hodes' and Shea-Porter's pro-environment positions this year, according to Environment America, included support for blocking funding for new roads in Alaska's Tongass National Forest and a bill to protect certain special places - such as wilderness study sites and areas of environmental concern - from mining.

"I'm honored that I got the rating and intend to continue speaking up for the environment and for the people of New Hampshire," said Shea-Porter, who described the environmental issues as carrying critical national security implications.

The scores, she said, show "that we are finally at the point where legislators recognize what Americans have always known - that our environment is in trouble."

However, the Environment America scorecard contains a list of 21 senators and 67 representatives who the group classifies as "natural disasters" for taking a so-called "anti-environment" stance on every vote the group tracked.

Sens. Judd Gregg and John E. Sununu, R-N.H., avoided this list but still scored markedly lower than their counterparts in the House of Representatives.

Both senators took Environment America's favored position only 50 percent of the time. They similarly trailed Hodes and Shea-Porter in a scorecard released in February by the Washington, D.C.-based League of Conservation Voters.

In contrast with Hodes and Shea-Porter, who scored 100 percent and 90 percent, respectively, on the League's scorecard, Gregg and Sununu earned scores of 60 percent and 53 percent.

Among Environment America's beefs this year was Gregg and Sununu's June 14, 2007 vote in favor of an unsuccessful amendment that would have allowed the state of Virginia to petition to do gas exploration and drilling in coastal zones.

In earning Environment America votes of 50 percent, Gregg and Sununu stood apart from senators from every other New England state, all of whom scored 100 percent with the exception of Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., who earned a 70 percent because of three absences.

"I think that it's not uncommon for New Hampshire to stand apart from the rest of New England in certain ways," Staaf said. "I suppose this is just another way that New Hampshire is keeping up that trend."

But Sununu's press secretary, Liz Chamberlain, suggested that Environment America's scorecard missed some key points.

Environment America's "vote selection for the 2008 Scorecard is a bit puzzling," Chamberlain wrote in an e-mail.

"(T)he scorecard provides a 'negative' score ... for not supporting clean energy tax extenders and increasing the 'gas mileage standard,' " she wrote in reference to a December 2007 vote.

"However," she continued, "this completely ignores Roll Call #95 in 2008 on the Ensign-Cantwell amendment incorporating the Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act - of which Senator Sununu is a lead co-sponsor - dealing directly with the clean energy tax incentives."

The Ensign-Cantwell amendment was proposed to provide for the limited continuation of energy efficiency and clean energy production incentives.

The vote on the Ensign-Cantwell amendment was April 10 - after the time period used to compile Environment America's 2008 scorecard.

In an e-mail, Gregg's press secretary, Laena Fallon, similarly cited his vote in favor of the Ensign-Cantwell amendment, along with his December 2007 vote in favor of the Renewable Fuels, Consumer Protection and Energy Efficiency Act.

Among a range environmental successes over recent years, Chamberlain cited Sununu's securing funding for upgrades in water and wastewater systems in numerous cities and towns, including Jaffrey, along with a number of conservation initiatives.

Sununu and Gregg also joined forces on the New England Wilderness Act of 2006, which was signed by President Bush in December of that year to protect wilderness areas, including parts of the White Mountain National Forest.

"As someone who has worked hard to protect the environment for current and future generations, I will let my full record - and not a cherry-picked ratings system by a partisan organization - speak for itself," Gregg said in an e-mailed statement. "The Environment America 2008 Scorecard narrowly focuses on only 10 roll call votes this year, many of which were laden with procedural gimmicks, as it has done in previous years."

However, Environment America is not the only organization to slam Gregg and Sununu with low scores (see graphic).

And in the past, Hodes and Shea-Porter's predecessors, Republican representatives Charles F. Bass and Jeb Bradley, have joined Gregg and Sununu with lagging marks on Environment America reports.

Between 2002 and 2006, Bass' environmental scores through the Environment America parent organization U.S. PIRG ranged from 23 to 50 percent.

Bradley hit higher marks from 2004 through 2006, with scores ranging from 50 to 53 percent.

Both former representatives were unavailable for comment.

But regardless of the numbers, all interviewed say they have pro-environment plans.

"Energy issues are ... a big part of what America's talking about right now. And it's a big part of I think what New Hampshire's focusing on as well," Staaf said. "The most pressing issue right now, that we're focusing on federally, is a clean, green energy economy."

Environment New Hampshire is also pushing for adoption of a federal, renewable electricity standard, she said, along with a strong climate bill to substantially reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Both Hodes and Shea-Porter described efforts to force oil and gas companies to drill on the federal lands they've already leased.

"The argument that some people make - that not enough federal land is available for drilling - is just plain false," Shea-Porter said in a press release statement. "Energy companies aren't using most of the federal land they have already leased."

And while stressing the need to ensure that Americans have the energy they need now, Shea-Porter said she wants alternative energy sources to become mainstream sources within a few years.

Sununu "believes that the U.S. needs to increase our domestic oil supply to help lower gas prices for New Hampshire families," Chamberlain wrote.

And in the future, she said, he will continue pushing the Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008 and the Clean Air Planning Act of 2007. Co-sponsored by Sununu, the latter act would set emission limits for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and carbon dioxide.

Gregg, who also co-sponsored the Clean Air Planning Act, said he hopes members of Congress can work together to find bipartisan answers, lower carbon emissions, and develop clean energy sources.

Meanwhile, in a glass-half-full perspective, Staaf noted that with a 50 percent score, Environment America and New Hampshire senators are striking agreement half the time.

"They're voting with us part of the time," she said. "That doesn't mean that we can't necessarily see this number rise in the future with these two members of the Senate."

Still, she added, "It benefits New Hampshire, it benefits the country when we have members of Congress who are willing to vote in favor of the environment 100 percent of the time."