Obama on the Issues

A look at Barack Obama’s environmental platform and record 11

Platform & Record In-Depth

  • Opposes oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

  • Believes nuclear power should continue to be a part of the U.S.'s energy mix.

  • Opposes the storage of nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain repository being built in southern Nevada.

  • Has run print and TV ads in Kentucky touting his support for "clean coal" and the state's coal industry.

  • Promises to restore environmental protections that the Bush administration rolled back by executive order.

  • Supports country-of-origin labels for food and has also voiced support for labeling genetically modified foods.

  • Cosponsor of the Boxer-Sanders Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act, the most stringent climate bill in the Senate.

  • Opposes the House-passed bill that would reform the 1872 Mining Law. That law lets companies mine public lands without paying royalties and doesn't hold them responsible for mine cleanup. Obama said, "The legislation that has been proposed places a significant burden on the mining industry and could have a significant impact on jobs [in rural Nevada] given the difficulties the industry is already facing in maintaining its operations."

  • Says his religious faith inspires him to protect the environment.

  • In May 2008, voted to stop adding oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the rest of the year in an attempt to lower oil and gasoline prices. The petroleum reserve is designed as an emergency stockpile and currently contains enough oil to offset some 52 days' worth of oil imports to the U.S. at current rates. Stopping additions to the reserve would free up 70,000 barrels of oil a day.

  • Wants to increase funding to help farmers transition to organic and reform the USDA crop insurance program so it doesn't penalize organic farmers.

  • Calls for tougher pollution regulations on factory farms or concentrated animal-feeding operations (CAFOs).

  • When asked what he would do as president to address water and land issues in the U.S. West, Obama said he would prepare for water shortages in a climate-changed future, clean up abandoned mines, develop renewable energy, and employ a more balanced approach than the Bush administration to traditional energy development.

  • Has accepted $159,800 in contributions from executives and employees of Exelon, the nation's largest nuclear power-plant operator, for his presidential campaign as of late March 2007, and received notable support from Exelon in his previous political campaigns.

  • Primary cosponsor of the Lead Poisoning Reduction Act, which aims to protect children from toxic lead poisoning.

  • Primary cosponsor of the bipartisan Fuel Economy Reform Act, which would raise vehicle fuel-efficiency standards by 4 percent, or approximately one mile per gallon, each year. The measure includes tax incentives to help automakers retool their factories toward the goal. The bill also includes a provision that would let the Department of Transportation revise the annual targets if it determined that the planned increases were not safe, cost-effective, or technologically possible.

  • Calls for a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which would require that all transportation fuels sold in the U.S. have a 5 percent lower carbon intensity by 2015 and 10 percent lower by 2020. The legislation could spur the production of biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel since one way to lower the carbon intensity of petroleum-based fuels is to add a proportion of biofuels. The proposal is modeled after a similar standard that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger implemented in California in January 2007.

  • Introduced the Oil SENSE Act (clever acronym alert! SENSE = Subsidy Elimination for New Strategies on Energy). The bill would eliminate select oil-industry tax breaks and require that oil companies renegotiate flawed Gulf of Mexico drilling leases that have let companies avoid paying billions in royalties to the federal treasury.

  • Cosponsor in 2005 of the Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act, which called for cutting America's oil consumption by 2.5 million barrels a day within a decade, and 10 million barrels a day by 2031. In 2005, U.S. consumption was 20 million barrels a day.

  • Introduced the 2005 FILL UP Act (clever acronym alert! FILL UP = Future Investment to Lessen Long-term Use of Petroleum). The bill would have required oil companies that made at least $1 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2006 to invest at least 1 percent of those profits in installing pumps for E85 and other alternative fuels at U.S. gas stations.

  • Has sponsored or cosponsored a mind-numbing array of bills to promote ethanol and other biofuels. The bills' many overlapping provisions include offering tax credits and other incentives for biofuel production, E85 infrastructure, and flex-fuel and alt-fuel vehicles; mandating that certain amounts of biofuels or other alternative fuels be added to the nation's vehicle fuel supply; requiring federal agencies to purchase alt-fuel vehicles and use ethanol blends when possible; and requiring all new cars sold in the U.S. to be dual-fuel capable.

  • Worked to get the nation's first zero-emissions coal power plant, FutureGen, built in Illinois. In December, the feds announced that it would be built in the state, but on Jan. 29 they said funding was being pulled from the project entirely.

  • Voted in favor of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, a sweeping, oil-friendly energy bill opposed by enviros; Obama cited the bill's support for ethanol and "clean coal" technology. The act passed and Bush signed it into law in August 2005.

  • Successfully inserted language into the 2005 Energy Policy Act that steered $40 million toward the goal of bringing a combined flexible-fuel and hybrid car to commercial distribution within five years.

Still Haven't Gotten Enough?

What did we miss? Tell us below in comments. We'll update this page as the presidential campaign continues.


Kate Sheppard and Todd Hymas Samkara contributed to this fact sheet.

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  1. crumbrye Posted 4:39 am
    08 Jan 2008

    Barack Obama Bringing Back Nixon and the 1970'shttp://greenpieceblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/with-obama-is- ...

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  2. GonzoDon Posted 4:38 am
    12 Jan 2008

    Folks,let's collectively take a deep breath.  Obama is not perfect on the environment.  Neither is Hillary, nor John Edwards.  No competitive presidential candidate is, nor will ever be in this country.
    The important thing is to get the major obstacles out of the way.  Obstacles like Bush.  Cheney.  Julie MacDonald.  Gale Norton.  The increasingly reactionary members of the Supreme Court.  The increasingly corporate-controlled media.  
    These are obstacles that need to be removed one brick at a time, deliberately and painstakingly.  This takes work, time, patience, persistence.
    This won't happen overnight.  There is no single political savior out there.  There never will be.  The people have to lead.  The people have to vote in supportive Senate and House candidates that will encourage rather than discourage our commander-in-chief to make progress on environmental issues.  The people have to support think tanks and environmental organizations and media outlets that are eager to speak truth to power and wrestle with difficult environmental questions.  
    At that point, even imperfect politicians will have to either get on board or get out of the way.  Similar to the United States' reluctant signing-on last month to the international agreement to address climate change.  
    At some point, even self-serving swine like the Bush Administration, if unable to do anything progressive, will at least get out of the way and quit being obstructionists.

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  3. CottonTop Posted 10:55 am
    15 Jan 2008

    However, in Obama's defense:Iowa and Illinois are making TONS of money off corn-based ethanol and the crop subsidies that accompany it, related environmental degradation notwithstanding. Being from Illinois and having used Iowa as a springboard for launching his Presidential bid, Obama will probably not, if elected, throw biofuels overboard--immediately. But the environmental case against biofuels is strong, and growing, and Obama is, if nothing else, pragmatic and non-ideological. He is also very, very receptive to input from all quarters and has a demonstrated willingness to tell folks stuff they don't necessarily want to hear. He understands the country's hunger for a leader who can exhort people to make meaningful sacrifices in order to secure a better world. That's where we come in. One of Obama's top energy policy advisors, Jason Grumet, told me at a meeting in Nevada, Iowa in mid-2007 that he personally preferred a carbon tax to a cap-and-trade system for  reducing carbon dioxide emissions, but that, for the moment, a cap-and-trade system was far more politically feasible. THIS SUGGESTS TO ME THAT AN OBAMA ADMINISTRATION WOULD STRONGLY CONSIDER A CARBON TAX AS OPPOSED TO A CAP-AND-TRADE SYSTEM IF WE PUSH HARDER FOR IT, PUTTING PRESSURE ON ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT. The best thing about Obama is that he believes so strongly in everyday citizens who are engaged in community improvement. He spent 3 years in the "trenches" as a community organizer, and it has shaped his thinking ever since. His campaign motto is Respect, Empower, Include. This is a guy we can work with, and moreover, I believe that his election could signal to would-be terrorists abroad that America might not be so awful after all, which could give us the breathing room we need to help mend our relationships abroad--such an important precursor to the crafting of stronger worldwide environmental standards.  

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  4. TitanGreens Posted 1:01 am
    17 Jan 2008

    Obama in the 2008 Climate CupThe creative do-gooders at TitanGreens.com decided to try their hand at determining the "greenest candidate" with the 2008 Climate Cup. We seeded the hopefuls, weighed the issues, and let the politicians fight it out.

    Check out how Barack Obama fared...

    http://titancast.titantv.com/afdfefb5bcec4ccca2f2e5a9ec40 ...

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  5. econpolyeco Posted 9:30 am
    05 Feb 2008

    FutureGenIn response to the comments regarding futuregen not being clean, your right it isn't clean, however it is CLEANER than the current coal fired power plants it would potentially replace.  I think we can all agree that the US needs to fundamentally change the way it currently produces energy, and most of us would agree that nuclear is not the way to go.  That leaves us with natural gas (we're rapidly running out), hydroelectric (anyone here a big fan of damns?), wind/solar ( which I lump together as they are both a product of the suns input) and coal.  Now I am the first person to say that wind/solar is the way to go now and in the future but without an rapid developement of a massive system of energy storage for the days when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing that leads us back to coal.  We have tremendous domestic coal reserves and if we would actually spend the money to research cleaner ways of utilizing this coal (I'm looking at you DOE)then perhaps it could be a viable energy source.  Sure FutureGen has some serious flaws, but at least it's a step towards cleaner energy production.  Now if only we didn't have to mine the stuff........

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  6. racc Posted 1:03 pm
    06 Feb 2008

    Obama Supports Cycling, Transit and Smart GrowthWhat more to say. He is the only candidate to support these practical solutions instead of falling completely for the alternative fuel fantasies.

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  7. greengo Posted 2:13 am
    10 Feb 2008

    Letter to ObamaLet's see what Obama's real environmental policy stance is...
    http://greengolingo.blogspot.com/2008/02/open-letter-to-s ...
    Enough of this failure to be clear and straightforward on his stance.

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  8. homeboy Posted 6:53 pm
    24 Feb 2008

    not so sureI'm not so sure that the corporate media have been hyping Obama or Clinton because of anything other than the basic fact that they are newsworthy and that the republican side isn't. "News" to the mainstream media and really.. any popular websites out there... is something controversial, something worth talking about. Hillary and Obama fighting to win the democratic nomination is completely worthy to be hyped up... it's got 2 sides of a coin completely angered and hostile against eachother.. that's what the crappy news agencies are known to show, and it makes sense.
    I'm very interested in seeing your "poison dust" documentary... I'm open minded and realize money plays too much of a role in most organizations including the energy sector and our government as well. I have a feeling this film won't be too much of a surprise. By the way, did you get a chance to see the Barack Obama Yes We Can video? This was totally unpaid for, and was created by people who's time is very valuable. People feel compelled to help Obama not because of the media hype.. but because they feel he is truly going to let the voice of the American people finally get heard. I understand you're hesitation on why he seems so popular... everyone should be skeptical and should research the candidates themselves.. even some professors are having discussions as to why Obama is so popular. People are finding it tough to believe after the crap we put up with with Bush, that a real human could be put into office.
    Surely, Obama might not yet have thought completely about all the environmental issues... noone can go into office with all the answers for everything. I just hope, just as you do, that after being elected that he finds out all these other things that you mentioned, or otherwise that need to be addressed as well. One thing he realizes I think that gives me comfort to believe this is that he understands he doesn't know everything and Barack Obama is appointing people in positions that he doesn't know much about, but knows there must be someone to inform him about possible issues.
    Sorry for the rant, but I think Obama is a huge step in the right direction... regardless of whether he knows all the issues or not.

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  9. zachrd99 Posted 1:02 pm
    03 Nov 2008

    Your chance to contribute Instead of discussing which candidate will be better for the environment, take action yourself.  Here's an opportunity for us all to make a difference, one person at a time:
    http://www.poweredgreen.com/

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Series Intro
Interviews and info on the presidential candidates' environmental positions 53
Grist interviews Vilsack; Vilsack quits presidential race 2
A look at Barack Obama's environmental platform and record 11
An interview with Barack Obama about his presidential platform on energy and the environment 28
A look at John Edwards' environmental platform and record 1
An interview with John Edwards about his presidential platform on energy and the environment 15
A look at Dennis Kucinich's environmental platform and record 6
An interview with Dennis Kucinich about his presidential platform on energy and the environment 34
A look at Chris Dodd's environmental platform and record 0
An interview with Chris Dodd about his presidential platform on energy and the environment 1
A look at Bill Richardson's environmental platform and record 1
An interview with Bill Richardson about his presidential platform on energy and the environment 7
A look at Mike Gravel's environmental platform and record 1
An interview with Mike Gravel about his presidential platform on energy and the environment 5
A look at Hillary Clinton's environmental platform and record 7
An interview with Hillary Clinton about her presidential platform on energy and the environment 32
A look at the environmental record of Joe Biden, Barack Obama's running mate 1
An interview with Joe Biden about energy and the environment 2
A look at John McCain's environmental platform and record 1
An interview with John McCain about his presidential platform on energy and the environment 9
An interview with Mike Huckabee about his presidential platform on energy and the environment 2
A look at Mike Huckabee's environmental platform and record 2
An interview with Sam Brownback about his presidential platform on energy and the environment 1
A look at Sam Brownback's environmental platform and record 0
An interview with Tom Tancredo about his presidential platform on energy and the environment 7
A look at Tom Tancredo's environmental platform and record 0
An interview with Ron Paul about his presidential platform on energy and the environment 55
A look at Ron Paul's environmental platform and record 6
A look at Rudy Giuliani's environmental platform and record 1
A look at Mitt Romney's environmental platform and record 4
A look at Duncan Hunter's environmental platform and record 0
A look at Fred Thompson's environmental platform and record 0
An interview with Ralph Nader about his presidential platform on energy and the environment 9
A look at Ralph Nader's environmental platform and record 3
Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney talks to Grist 19
An interview with Bob Barr about his presidential platform on energy and the environment 3
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