Senator Barack Obama has released a comprehensive plan to address global warming and our energy challenges, which includes a mandatory cap-and-trade program to cut greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the use of clean, renewable energy sources. In discussing the climate crisis, Sen. Obama has made a point of acknowledging that there will be a cost on the front-end for transforming the way we use energy, but that we can also create a new generation of clean energy jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities.¹ Additionally, in debates and on the campaign trail, Sen. Obama often highlights how he gave a speech to the Detroit Economic Club about the need to raise auto effi ciency standards.² He has also introduced the Health Care for Hybrids Act, which would provide automakers with government assistance to help pay their health care costs if they put some of those savings into creating more fuel-effi cient cars.³

Sen. Obama believes that there is no future for expanded nuclear power without fi rst addressing key concerns, including fuel and waste security and waste storage.⁴ In 2007 he voted to support investing in liquid coal if it reduced carbon pollution by 20 percent over conventional gasoline.⁵ Sen. Obama is a cosponsor of the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act, the strongest global warming legislation introduced in the Senate.⁶

Sen. Obama has consistently voted to protect our nation’s coasts and beaches by opposing offshore drilling. However, he has expressed concerns with the Hardrock Mining Reform Act of 2007,⁷ which establishes a royalty for mines operating on public lands and uses the proceeds to help clean up abandoned mines, but he does support reforming the 1872 mining law.

In his own words

Obama’s first 100 days priorities on energy and global warming:

“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 ultraefficient 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.”⁹

On other key environmental issues, Sen. Obama:

Supports reinstating the Superfund “polluter pays” program
Supports protecting water resources (including intermittent streams and isolated wetlands)
Supports permanently protecting and preserving the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Supports the reinstatement of 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule
Supports requirements of compliance with existing environmental laws in trade agreements