The thinking behind our endorsement

Why PennEnvironment supports Barack Obama for president

PennEnvironment is endorsing Barack Obama for President because he will bring to the Presidency the clearest solutions for and strongest commitment to the protection of our environment. He has publicly committed to fully addressing the pressing problem of global warming and carrying the United States toward a new energy future. He has made energy and the environment some of the top issues of his campaign and as a public servant has a long and consistent record of supporting the environment.

This paper is an explanation of PennEnvironment's endorsement of Barack Obama. What follows is an examination of the environmental records and positions of both Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain. In light of those records, this paper explains why Barack Obama is the right vote for the environment.

History of advocacy and a plan for the future
Obama has a long history as community organizer and environmental leader. As an undergraduate at Columbia University in New York, Obama organized with NYPIRG—the New York Public Interest Research Group—and promoted recycling to college students.[1] Obama continued to advocate for environmental policies after his graduation; as a community organizer in Chicago he worked for reductions in lead levels in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood.[2]

Since he has been in public office, Senator Obama has distinguished himself even amongst other environmentally conscious officials. In 2003 he was one of only six members of the Illinois legislature to earn the 100 Percent Environmental Voting Record Award from the Illinois Environmental Council.[3]

Over his career as a U.S. Senator he has voted with Environment America 86 percent of the time, including 90 percent in the 2008 Environment America Congressional scorecard. His one vote missed in our 2008 scorecard was an absence rather than a vote in opposition. The League of Conservation Voters has calculated Obama’s lifetime rating of 86 percent[4]. In 2005 he voted to repeal oil company tax breaks and against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge[5]. He voted in favor of raising automobile efficiency through higher CAFE standards in both 2005 and 2007[6]. Additionally he co-sponsored the strongest, most compelling global warming legislation ever to be introduced to the Senate, the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007. It is the only one to meet the scientifically imperative 80 percent carbon reduction[7].

A champion of a broad range of environmental issues, such as clean air, water and preserving our open spaces, Obama has voted to end taxpayer subsidies to build new logging roads in the Tongass National Forest[8]. In 2005 he voted for $600 million to cleanup storm water that runs off of roads and highways[9].

Beyond casting pro-environmental ballots, Obama has repeatedly prioritized the environment as a major issue in his campaigns. In his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, he made the environment one of his top three issues, according to Robert Gibbs, his spokesman at the time[10]. During the primary race for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2007, Obama again, unequivocally, affirmed his support for the environment when he stated that energy was one of his top three domestic priorities[11].

Obama’s plans for his presidency include strong support for cap-and-trade legislation, and a commitment to the scientifically required 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050[12]. Further, Obama’s plan includes 100 percent auction of all emissions permits—allowing an immediate incentive to both reduce emissions and create a funding source for clean energy solutions[13].

Obama’s extensive environmental campaign commitments lay out a vision of a carbon-free economy that still maintains the life Americans expect to continue living. He will designate $150 billion for research into and implementation of renewable energy sources[14]. He understands, however, that one policy will not fix our energy problems, and as such, plans to reduce our oil consumption by at least 35 percent by 2030 by focusing on efficiency and new technologies[15].

Sen. John McCain
John McCain: Occasional leadership but frequent disappointment.

No issue in the campaign more clearly defines environmental leadership than the response to recent increase in the cost of oil and gasoline. In a stark contrast to Senator Obama, Senator John McCain of Arizona is taking the easiest path, and misleading the American people by allowing them to believe that expanded drilling will reduce gas prices or fix our energy problems, even in the short term^[16]. Although McCain has many times in the past committed not to drill offshore, he recently reversed his position, claiming that the needs of the nation have changed as the price of oil has risen[17].

McCain’s claims that increased domestic oil drilling will decrease gas and oil prices are a willful deception of the American public. He allows the public to believe that if we simply drill within the U.S. we will have enough oil to affect the overall, worldwide oil supply. This is simply untrue. The United States has only two percent of the world’s oil reserves, yet we use 25 percent. Obviously, drilling in America will not fix our dependence on oil, or on foreign oil as McCain claims[18].

Senator McCain’s earlier proposal to create a tax-holiday for gasoline as a response to rising gas prices was an early sign in the campaign that he was more wedded to the politics of big oil than he was to sound energy policy. Investigative reporting has now shown that he as at least 22 senior advisors and staff who are lobbyists for the oil industry.

McCain also continues to support the expansion of and further investment in dangerous and expensive nuclear power and an increased reliance on coal[19].

Despite proclamations that the seriousness of global warming warrants action, McCain was absent from each and every environment- or energy-related vote recorded on the 2008 Environment America Scorecard[20]. He was absent when the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act came to the floor of the Senate; this most recent legislative attempt to address global warming was also the most aggressive to be debated[21]. Instead, McCain issued a statement that he would have voted to invoke cloture (cut off debate and proceed to the bill) but would have worked to weaken the bill even further. One of his major problems with the bill, according to his statement, was that there was not enough support for nuclear power[22].

His absences have had extremely detrimental effects on energy and climate legislation. He was not present to cast his vote in a one-vote defeat on an energy bill that would have created renewable and energy efficiency tax credits, both of which are critical to moving toward a clean energy economy and reducing global warming[23]. Due to his absences, a monumental step was not taken on the road to clean energy and the curbing of harmful carbon emissions.

McCain’s proposed plan to combat global warming reduces greenhouse gas pollution by only 60 percent by 2050—a full twenty percent less than is deemed scientifically necessary, and even less than the Lieberman-Warner bill[24]. In 2005, he did provide leadership in promoting a climate change bill only to undermine its own passage by insisting on increased federal subsidies for the nuclear industry. McCain has an extremely disappointing lifetime voting score of 30 for votes as scored by Environment America and 24 percent from the League of Conservation Voters, significantly undermining his claims to be a leader on these issues[25]. He has voted against the superfund program and requiring polluters to pay for clean-up of toxic waste sites[26] , he has voted against the public’s right to know about pollution in their community[27] and has voted to weaken safe drinking water protections[28].

Barack Obama for president 
Senator Obama has a well-articulated, pragmatic and comprehensive plan for moving America into the new energy economy. He recognizes that it is imperative to shift away from fossil fuels if the worst effects of global warming are to be avoided[29]. His long history of strength on environmental issues demonstrates that his current commitments are firm and can be trusted to outlast pressure from special interests. With Obama in the White House, real action can and will be taken to move this country forward into a future where green places, plentiful animals and healthy humans can survive.