Senator Barack Obama (D)

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The LCV Scorecard provides objective, factual information about the most important environmental legislation considered and the corresponding voting records of all members of Congress. It represents a consensus of experts from more than 20 respected environmental and conservation organizations who selected the key votes on which members should be graded. To view the 2006 scorecard, please click here.

The last two years of Barack Obama’s LCV scores are above, followed by his lifetime LCV score. The lifetime LCV score represents the career average for all years served in office. For more about the Environmental Voting Record click here.

Environmental Overview

What accomplishments or experiences would you cite as influences on your approach to environmental or conservation issues? These may be professional or personal.

"The places of my youth profoundly influenced my understanding of the environment: Hawaii gave me an abiding affection for nature’s beauty, while Indonesia showed me the environmental degradation that can occur when greed is left unchecked.

My commitment to using community activism to solve environmental health problems dates back to my time as a community organizer in Chicago, where I helped form a tenants’ rights group in the housing projects that successfully organized to force the city and federal governments to clear asbestos from pipes in public housing developments.

But without a doubt the greatest influence on me is my oldest daughter, Malia, who has asthma. Because of her, I have an enduring personal commitment to cleaner air."

Global Warming & Energy priorities for first 100 days

As you know, a common rubric for measuring the results of a new presidential administration is to evaluate priorities for its first 100 days in office. The League of Conservation Voters believes that the one issue area voters will be most focused on, when it comes to the environment, is energy and global warming. If you are sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, what will be your priorities in the energy and global warming arena for your first 100 days in office, and why? These may be achievable by executive action, legislative action, international action, or appointments.

"Putting a price on carbon is the most important step we can to take to reduce emissions. As president, my first priority to combat global warming will be enacting an economy-wide cap on U.S. carbon emissions that will reduce U.S. emissions by the amount scientists agree is necessary (80%) for the U.S. to bear an equitable share of the global emissions reduction burden. I will devote significant resources from a permit auction toward accelerating the development and deployment of low carbon technologies, addressing the economic challenges imposed on key industrial sectors, and providing meaningful incentives for action by developing countries.

Another top priority for my energy and global warming agenda will be changing the cars we drive and the fossil fuels we burn. I will increase fuel efficiency standards to the limits of technological and economic feasibility; introduce legislation to lift the 60,000-per-manufacturer cap on buyer tax credits to encourage more Americans to buy ultra-efficient vehicles; and encourage automakers to make fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles by helping them shoulder the health care costs of their retirees. Domestic automakers will get health care assistance in exchange for investing 50 percent of the savings into technology to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles. In addition, I will provide automakers with generous tax incentives for retooling assembly plants.

To change the fuels we burn, I introduced legislation to enact a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard that will reduce the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of passenger vehicle fuels sold in the U.S. by 10 percent in 2020 and require additional reductions of 1% annually thereafter."

Please respond to the previous question but focus on environmental issues outside of the energy and global warming arena.

"Environmental health, including air pollution, will be a major priority of mine. For example, the EPA estimates that every year, more than one in six children could be at risk for developmental disorders because of mercury exposure in the mother's womb. This is unacceptable, and we can do better. As president, I will significantly reduce the amount of mercury that is deposited in oceans, lakes, and rivers, which in turn will reduce the amount that people ingest when eating fish.

Lead poisoning in children plummeted significantly since the banning of lead in paint and fuels -- yet today, there are 400,000 American children who continue to suffer from lead poisoning, most of these children from low-income families. As president, I will call on Congress to enact legislation I have introduced during my time in the Senate that would protect American children from lead poisoning. This legislation would prevent children’s products from containing lead, provide incentives for property owners to eliminate or contain lead paint in homes with low-income young children or women of child-bearing age, and require that all child care facilities outside the home be lead-safe within five years."

Priority compared to other issues for first 100 days

Many candidates for office, not just for president, intend or promise to do great things on many issues. How would you say environmental or conservation issues would rank as a priority for you in your first 100 days when compared to other issues? Why? Do you intend to personally attend to these issues?

"I believe that global warming is not just the greatest environmental challenge facing our planet—it is one of our greatest challenges of any kind. It is an issue that we ignore at our own peril and at even greater peril for our children, grandchildren, and many impoverished global populations. Combating global warming will be a top priority of my presidency, and I will attend to it personally.

I am acutely aware that the health of our environment is inextricably linked to another one of today’s most pressing issues: America’s spiraling health care costs. In my Administration, environmental protection will be understood as a cornerstone of disease prevention. We need to preserve our parks, forests, farms and wilderness, because they are beautiful and deserve our protection, but also because without these places, our children will become more sedentary. Our children have a right to be protected from environmental toxins like mercury and lead poisoning, and we must confront diesel pollution and the other environmental triggers that have led to an explosion in pediatric asthma in urban and rural areas alike. We also need to remember that environmental degradation is just one more force that disproportionately hurts low-income and minority communities. In fulfilling this obligation to practice disease prevention, we will also be pursing a more effective and economically efficient approach to health care.

In the end, I understand environmental protection to be a great calling on its own. But I also see it as part and parcel of a number of other national priorities, and that elevates its stature even further."