Thu Feb 21, 4:08 PM ET

WASHINGTON – Republican Sen. John McCain may warm the hearts of environmentalists with his call to urgently address global warming, but he didn’t fare too well before the League of Conservation Voters on Thursday, earning a zero score on Senate votes the group sees as important for the environment.

The League, which annually ranks members of Congress based on their pro-environment votes, said that McCain was absent on every one of the 15 votes the group used to compile its 2007 ranking as he campaigned for the GOP presidential nomination.

Absenteeism also drove down the score for Democratic presidential contenders, Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

Clinton received a 73 percent ranking, casting “pro-environment” votes 11 times. Obama was at 67 percent with 10 pro-environment votes. But Clinton and Obama each missed four of the 15 votes tracked by the group, driving down their scores compared to previous years.

McCain was among seven senators given a zero score, meaning they were absent or voted against the environmental position on all of the issues being tracked. The votes ranged from approval for an increase in automobile fuel economy and imposing new taxes on oil companies to offshore oil development and prioritizing flood-control projects.

Here’s a question from someone north of the 49th and thus slightly out of the US political news loop: Are there any instances of McCain actually voting FOR an environmental or energy-independence proposal? I intended to put together essentially what this post turned out to be (thanks!), with his full track record, just to convince a few folks here that McCain’s not who he says he is.