of October 2018, his rating on Clean Water Action's scorecard for the 115th congressional session was 33%. Lance supported TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline, voting for the 2014 bill to authorize its construction. However, Lance opposed the PennEast Pipeline, which would cross New Jersey, citing its impact on property owners, public lands, and preservation efforts. Lance voted to repeal the Clean Water Rule (also called the "Waters of the United States rule"). In 2014, Lance's chief of staff, Todd Mitchell, said that Lance accepted that "climate change is occurring and human activity is a contributing factor" but asserted that it was "uncertain how much of the warming is attributable to humans and how much is attributable to other factors." In 2015, Lance voted to repeal the Clean Power Plan rules published by the EPA that would have established the first national carbon dioxide emission guidelines for existing power plants. At a town hall in April 2017, he embraced the need to address man-made climate change. In 2008, after a group opposing his candidacy sent out a mailer criticizing Lance's environmental record, Jeff Tittel of the New Jersey Sierra Club defended Lance, saying he had "an excellent record." In 2009, Lance was one of only eight Republicans in the House who voted in favor of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, a bill that included am emissions cap-and-trade provision to address global warming. However, Tittel has since soured on Lance, suggesting in a 2018 op-ed in the New Jersey Star-Ledger that Lance "used to vote for the environment and now does not." Foreign policy Lance was one of nine lawmakers investigated by the House Ethics Committee for taking a trip in May 2013 to Turkey and Azerbaijan paid for by the Azerbaijan state-owned oil company. Lance said that he believed the Council of Turkic American Associations, a U.S.-based nonprofit, had funded the trip, which had originally been approved by the Ethics Committee based on that understanding, and said, "I'm furious if I was misled and the House Ethics Committee was misled." Lance and the other House representatives were cleared of wrongdoing by the committee. Lance supported the Iraq War troop surge of 2007. In 2015, Lance voted against the international nuclear agreement with Iran, and sponsored legislation to oppose additional sanctions against Iran. Guns According to a 2016 analysis by political nonprofit Vote Smart, Lance generally opposed gun control legislation. In