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Barack Obama (D) Democratic Junior Senator-
Presidential Candidate

Barack Obama - greenvoting.com
Senate Committees

  • Senate Environment and Public Works Committee





Background Info

•Sworn into office January 4, 2005


• Graduated from Harvard Law School where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review.
www.barackobama.com



Voting Trends/Record

  • Promote green technologies and fuel efficiency standards. (Dec 2007)

  • Organized inner-city recycling; fought environmental racism. (Oct 2007)

  • Reduce mercury and lead to protect community health. (Aug 2007)

  • 1985: Organized asbestos removal in Chicago housing project. (Aug 2007)

  • Passed lead abatement & 24 other laws in IL Senate. (Aug 2007)

  • Three months working on minority students recycling. (Aug 1996)

  • Voted YES on including oil & gas smokestacks in mercury regulations. (Sep 2005)

  • Tax credit to remove lead-based housepaint. (Nov 2005)

  • Sponsored health impact bill for environmental health. (Apr 2006)


  • Renewable Fuels: Obama has worked on numerous efforts in the Senate to increase access to and use of renewable fuels. Obama passed legislation with Senator Jim Talent (R-MO) to give gas stations a tax credit for installing E85 ethanol refueling pumps. The tax credit covers 30 percent of the costs of switching one or more traditional petroleum pumps to E85, which is an 85 percent ethanol/15 percent gasoline blend. Obama also sponsored an amendment that became law providing $40 million for commercialization of a combined flexible fuel vehicle/hybrid car within five years.

  • CAFE: Obama introduced a bold new plan that brought Republicans and Democrats, CAFE supporters and long-time opponents together in support of legislation that will gradually increase fuel economy standards and offer what the New York Times editorial page called "real as opposed to hypothetical results."
Barack Obama on "The Environment"


Quotes

  • Plan for a Clean Energy Future

    “Well, I don't believe that climate change is just an issue that's convenient to bring up during a campaign. I believe it's one of the greatest moral challenges of our generation. That's why I've fought successfully in the Senate to increase our investment in renewable fuels. That's why I reached across the aisle to come up with a plan to raise our fuel standards… And I didn't just give a speech about it in front of some environmental audience in California. I went to Detroit, I stood in front of a group of automakers, and I told them that when I am president, there will be no more excuses — we will help them retool their factories, but they will have to make cars that use less oil.”
    — Barack Obama, Speech in Des Moines, IA, October 14, 2007
Sources: http://obama.senate.gov, www.ontheissue.org, www.barackobama.com