Obama on the Issues

Updated 22 Aug 2008

In the early months of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, enviros were skeptical of his (now heavily qualified) support for coal-to-liquids technology and unvarnished enthusiasm for ethanol, but he earned their respect with his aggressive climate and energy plan. The plan centers on a cap-and-trade system that aims for 80 percent emission reductions from 1990 levels by 2050 and calls for auctioning 100 percent of the pollution permits. It also includes a $150 billion investment to boost clean energy and create green jobs, along with fine-grained proposals to boost efficiency, build a smart electricity grid, and encourage public transportation. Enviros have also applauded Obama's refusal to endorse a gas-tax holiday and his now somewhat qualified opposition to offshore oil drilling. Obama earned an 86 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters for his first three years representing Illinois in the U.S. Senate (a lower score than might have been because he missed some votes while campaigning for president).

Read an interview with Barack Obama by Grist and Outside.

Key Points

• Calls for cutting U.S. carbon dioxide emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Would accomplish this through a cap-and-trade system that would auction off 100 percent of emissions permits, making polluters pay for the CO2 they emit.
  
  
• Would channel revenue raised from auctioning emissions permits -- between $30 billion and $50 billion a year -- toward developing and deploying clean energy technology, creating "green jobs," and helping low-income Americans afford higher energy bills.
  
  
• Calls for 25 percent of U.S. electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025, and for 30 percent of the federal government's electricity to come from renewables by 2020.
  
  
• Proposes investing $150 billion over 10 years in R&D for renewables, biofuels, efficiency, "clean coal," and other clean tech.
  
  
• Calls for improving energy efficiency in the U.S. 50 percent by 2030.
  
  
• Calls for 36 billion gallons of biofuels to be used in the U.S. each year by 2022 and 60 billion gallons of biofuels to be used in the U.S. each year by 2030.
  
  
• Calls for all new buildings in the U.S. to be carbon neutral by 2030.
  
  
• Calls for reducing U.S. oil consumption by at least 35 percent, or 10 million barrels a day, by 2030.
  
  
• Introduced the Health Care for Hybrids Act, which would have the federal government help cover health-care costs for retired U.S. autoworkers in exchange for domestic auto companies investing at least 50 percent of the savings into production of more fuel-efficient vehicles.
  
  
• Supports raising fuel-economy standards for automobiles to 40 miles per gallon and light trucks to 32 mpg by 2020.
  
  
• Supports a phaseout of incandescent light bulbs by 2014.
  
  
• Cosponsor of the Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Promotion Act. After being badgered by MoveOn and other progressives over the issue, he "clarified" his position by saying he would support liquefied coal only if it emitted 20 percent less carbon over its lifecycle than conventional fuels.
  
  
• Has been endorsed by Friends of the Earth Action, in part for his opposition to a summer "gas-tax holiday" that McCain and Clinton support. (FoE Action had previously endorsed John Edwards.)
  
  

Video & Audio

Watch part of Obama's Oct. 8, 2007, energy policy speech in Portsmouth, N.H.:




Watch Obama's May 7, 2007, speech to the Detroit Economic Club, in which he calls on automakers to manufacture more efficient cars:




Watch Obama answer a question about nuclear power at the CNN/YouTube debate on July 23, 2007:




Watch Obama offer a different perspective on nuclear power at an Iowa campaign rally on Dec. 31, 2007:




Listen to Obama's Sept. 20, 2006, speech on energy independence [MP3], part of a MoveOn Progressive Vision Series:


Listen to a clip of Obama's interview with Grist and Outside:

Quotable Quotes

• "I've put forward one of the most aggressive proposals out there [on climate change], but the science seems to be coming in indicating it's accelerating even more quickly with every passing day. And by the time I take office, I think we're going to have to have a serious conversation about how drastic steps we need to take to address it."
  -- Dec. 4, 2007, during a Democratic debate
  
  
• "We are not acting as good stewards of God's Earth when our bottom line puts the size of our profits before the future of our planet."
  -- Oct. 14, 2007, in a speech at an interfaith forum on climate change
  
  
• "Businesses don't own the sky, the public does, and if we want them to stop polluting it, we have to put a price on all pollution. It's time to make the cleaner way of doing business the more profitable way of doing business."
  -- Oct. 8, 2007, in an energy policy speech in Portsmouth, N.H.
  
  
• "Saying that America is addicted to oil without following a real plan for energy independence is like admitting alcoholism and then skipping out on the 12-step program."
  -- April 2, 2006, in a speech at the Associated Press' annual luncheon, referring to President Bush's 2006 State of the Union address
  
  
• "The auto industry is on a path that is unacceptable and unsustainable -- for their business, for their workers, and for America. And America must take action to make it right. ... For too long, we've been either too afraid to ask our automakers to meet higher fuel standards or unwilling to help them do it. But the truth is ... we have to do both. We must demand that they revamp their production, we must assist that transition, and we must make the choice to buy these cars when we have the option."
  -- May 7, 2007, in a speech to the Detroit Economic Club
  
  
• "If we're going to have timber industries operating on public land then we should make sure that old-growth forests aren't destroyed but it's that second growth are what are harvested."
  -- May 24, 2008, in an interview with the Beacon newspaper
  
  
• "I think how we treat our animals reflects how we treat each other. And it's very important that we have a president who is mindful of the cruelty that is perpetrated on animals."
  -- Outside a town hall meeting in Las Vegas
  
  

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?

• Read Obama's energy and environment platform on his campaign website.
  
  
• Read Obama's official bio.
  
  
• Read David Roberts' comparison of Obama's and Clinton's environmental records.
  
  
• Read Grist's 2006 interview with Obama.
  
  
• Read Grist's 2004 overview of Obama's environmental record in the Illinois state Senate.
  
  

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.