Statement of Senator Barack Obama on the Climate Change Bill
June 6th, 2008 | Issues, Speeches | Comments »
CHICAGO, IL — Today, Sen. Barack Obama released the following statement on the Climate Change Bill:
“As this week’s debate on climate change has unfolded, the American people and those watching us around the world had every reason to hope that we would act. Every credible scientist and expert believes action is necessary. This is critical and long overdue legislation that represents a good first step in addressing one of the most serious problems facing our generation.
Like many of my Senate colleagues, I believe the legislation could have been made even better. Had there been a substantive Senate debate about some of the concerns with this bill, I believe the outcome could have generated broad support. It certainly would have received my support.
Unfortunately, the Republican leadership in the Senate has chosen to block progress, rather than work in a good faith manner to address this challenge. This is a failure of our politics and a failure of leadership - a President who for years denied the problem, and a Republican nominee, John McCain, who claims leadership on the issue but opposes this bipartisan bill.
We can’t afford more of the same timid politics when the future of our planet is at stake. We are already breaking records with the intensity of our storms, the number of forest fires, and the periods of drought. By 2050, famine could force more than 250 million from their homes. And if we do nothing, sea levels will rise high enough to swallow large portions of every coastal city and town.
This bipartisan legislation establishes an economy-wide cap on greenhouse gas emissions. It helps states, cities, and towns invest in technologies to reduce energy bills for homeowners, increase energy efficiency, construct green buildings, and expand public transit. It invests in green technology to help our automakers to retool and our fossil-fuel industries to become clean. The bill provides real financial relief to working families. Importantly, the bill restores our great nation’s international leadership role, while including provisions to ensure that all major emitting nations also take serious action to solve this global problem.
Let me clear, this bill is not perfect. Emissions reductions must reflect the scientific consensus, which are reductions of at least 80 percent 2050. We must ensure that more middle-class families reap more of the financial benefits created by this bill. And we must direct greater resources to the regions of the country that will bear the brunt of this critical transition to a clean energy economy.
I believe that the American people are ready to lead the world on this issue. The time for distractions, divisions, and excuses is over. The time for new coalitions, informed and civil debate, and a sense of shared purpose is long overdue. As president, I am committed to ensuring that our children and our children’s children can point to this generation as the time when American found its way again.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, June 6, 2008
Obama press office, 312-819-2423
<http://app.icontact.com/icp
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From: Origonian
By SARAH L. GERHARDT
About a month ago I wrote a piece titled “A Cynical Rant” http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonianopinion/2008/03/a_cynical_rant.html in response to an e-mailing ordeal with Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign. I e-mailed Sen. Obama asking his stance on Green Party issues. What I received in return was a form letter stating they were too busy to answer my question, followed by MANY donation requests. I didn’t sign up to be put on any list and it really made me angry. It made me feel as if my opinion didn’t matter — merely my pocketbook — and it turned my cynical heart even colder.
A couple of weeks ago, while I was out running errands, some Obama canvassers came to my house looking for me. It made me laugh, “What, now they want me to volunteer? You have got to be kidding me…” I thought. I laughed it off and decided to just ignore it. They had obviously not read my rant.
The following week I received a phone call. Now, this was getting a bit ridiculous. They left a message asking me to volunteer. That was when I decided to call back. A volunteer answered the phone at the office. The person sounded enthusiastic and asked me if I wanted to volunteer. To which I responded, “Actually, I would like to talk to someone from the campaign. You see, I wrote an editorial on Obama and my experiences with the campaign spamming me.” I think I threw the poor volunteer off because he stammered for a moment and said he would get a “staffer” to return my call. “This ought to be interesting,” I thought.
Well, it wasn’t even 10 minutes before my call was returned which, frankly, surprised me. I briefly explained the situation to the “staffer” and she sounded as if she was concerned about what had happened to me. She told me she would immediately work on getting my name taken off the lists and speak to other members of the staff about what happened. I offered to e-mail her a link to my “rant”. Which she gladly agreed to read and responded to in an adequate way… though not very detailed:
read the response and the rest of the article by clicking HERE
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“It is truly breathtaking for John McCain to talk about combating
climate change while voting against virtually every recent effort to
actually invest in clean energy. You don’t have to look further than the
wind turbine plant where Senator McCain is speaking today to assess his
commitment to this cause. While Senator McCain talks about the need to
invest in alternative energy, he rejected the single biggest investment
in renewable energy in history, including incentives that contributed to
a nearly 50% increase in wind power generation last year, and he has
repeatedly opposed renewable fuel mandates and higher fuel efficiency
standards for cars and trucks.
“In stark contrast, I’ve called for a national standard to ensure that
we’re using more renewable energy, an expansion of our green energy
sector that would create millions of green jobs, and a bipartisan plan
to double our fuel efficiency standards. That is why the American people
will have a clear choice in November when I am the nominee - between a
candidate who opposes real solutions to our energy crisis, and
leadership that will solve it once and for all.”
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Envirobama.com is donated and created by Amie Nguyen and managed by members of the Environmentalists for Obama group.
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