BARACK OBAMA - LCV SCORE AND VOTE HISTORY

LCV Score

This document contains highlights of Senator Barack Obama’s voting record on global warming, renewable energy, fuel efficiency, offshore drilling, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, regulatory reform, public lands and logging, clean air, clean water and other environmental issues.

In addition to the documents below, we have published two summary documents of Obama’s environmental record:  LCV’s 2008 Presidential Voter Guide (www.lcv.org/voterguide) and the 2008 Presidential Profiles (www.presidentialprofiles2008.org) which contains his verbatim responses to our 2008 Presidential Questionnaire.  Please note that both of these were published prior to the release of the 2007 National Environmental Scorecard (www.lcv.org/scorecard).

Obama LCV Environment Scorecard Record

[KEY:  Each issue below has the votes scored  by year with a plus (“+” for pro-environment) or minus (“-” for anti-environment or absent) indicating which way Sen. Obama voted.  More details on each vote are available online in our LCV National Environmental Scorecard archive (http://lcv.org/scorecard/past-scorecards/)]

Energy & Global Warming

2007
+ CAFÉ & Energy Efficiency: Obama voted yes to invoke cloture, which limited debate and allowed the Senate to vote on final passage on the bill to raise fuel efficiency standards, establish energy efficiency standards for appliances and federal buildings, and promote renewable fuels.  YES is the pro-environment vote. [Roll Call #225, H.R.6, 6/21/07]

+ CAFÉ & Energy Efficiency: Obama voted yes to approve H.R. 6, comprehensive energy legislation that most notably raised automobile fuel efficiency standards to 35 mpg by 2020.  YES is the pro-environment vote.  [Roll Call #226, H.R. 6, 6/21/07]

+ Water Resources – Global Warming:  Obama voted yes on an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act reauthorization bill that would require the I.S. Army Corps of Engineers  to consider the long and short-term effects of global climate change and to use the best available modern climate science in planning water projects. YES is the pro-environment vote.  [Roll Call vote #166, 05/05/07]

2005
+ Global Warming: Obama voted no on a motion to table a “Sense of the Senate” resolution that put the Senate on record agreeing that global warming is real and that mandatory limits are necessary to slow, stop, and reverse the growth of global warming pollution.  NO is the pro-environment vote. [Roll Call #149, Amendment 866, 6/22/05]

+ Oil Company Tax Credits: Obama voted yes on the Feinstein amendment to repeal tax breaks that allow major oil companies to deduct costs associated with exploration and development in a single year, lowering their effective tax rate. YES is the pro-environment vote. [Roll Call #332, S.2020 Amendment 2609, 11/17/05]

+ Energy Policy: Obama voted no on H.R. 6 Energy Conference Report, which dropped ANWR drilling but weakened key environmental protections for oil and gas drilling, added billions in new subsidies for coal, oil and nuclear power, allowed harmful underwater oil and gas testing in currently protected coastal areas, and stripped states and local governments of the authority to site liquefied natural gas facilities and transmission lines.  NO is the pro-environment vote.  [Roll Call #213, H.R. 6, 7/29/05]

Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) standards

Also see 2007 under Energy & Global Warming

2005
+ Obama voted no an amendment to allow continue allowing automakers to make fewer high-mileage cars if they also make vehicles that run on both ethanol and gasoline and would also make it harder for the Department of Transportation to set future CAFÉ standards.  NO is the pro-environment vote.  [Senate Roll Call #156, 6/23/05]

+ Later that day, Obama voted yes on an amendment that would have raised the CAFE standard for cars, SUVs, and minivans to 40 miles per gallon by 2015, saving 3.1 million barrels of oil a day by 2020—as much oil as the U.S. currently imports from the Persian Gulf and could extract from the Arctic Refuge and the California outer continental shelf, combined—and would have annually kept more than 500 million tons of carbon dioxide out of the air. YES is the pro-environment vote. [Senate Roll Call #157, H.R.6 amendment 902, 6/23/05]

Renewable Energy

2007
+ Obama voted yes to table an amendment that would have allowed conventional and polluting sources of energy, such as coal-fired power plants and nuclear power, to qualify for credits under the national renewable electricity standard. YES is the pro-environment vote. [Roll Call #211, H. R. 6, 6/14/07]

+ Obama voted yes to override the filibuster against the renewable electricity standard (which failed by one vote) and voted yes again when the Senate failed by one vote to repeal billions of dollars in subsidies to big oil in order to fund clean energy. YES is the pro-environment vote.  [Roll Call #416, H.R. 6, 12/7/07 and Roll Call #425, H.R. 6, 12/13/07]

+ Oil Refineries: Obama voted no on an amendment that would have eliminated public health and environmental permitting procedures for new or expanded oil refineries, coal-to-liquid refineries and ethanol or bio-diesel plants and would have replaced all state and federal approvals with a single “consolidated” permit, set arbitrary deadlines for approving permits, barred state courts from reviewing permitting decisions, and limited challenges brought in federal court. NO is the pro-environment vote. [Roll Call #210, H.R. 6, 6/13/07]

2005
+ Obama voted yes on an amendment that would require electric utilities to produce 10% of their electricity from clean, renewable sources by 2020. YES is the pro-environment vote. [Roll Call #141, H.R. 6, 6/16/05]

Offshore Oil Drilling

2007
- Obama was absent when the Senate voted on an amendment that would have authorized Virginia to petition for natural gas drilling and exploration in its coastal waters. NO is the pro-environment vote. [Roll Call #212, H.R. 6, 6/14/07]

2006
+ Obama voted no on ending debate on a bill that would open up 8 million acres off the coasts of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana for oil and gas drilling. NO is the pro-environment vote. [Roll Call 218, S. 3711, 7/31/2006]

+ Obama voted no to opening up 8 million acres of previously protected offshore areas to oil and gas drilling. NO is the pro-environment vote. [Roll Call Vote #219, S.3711, 8/2/06]

Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

2006
+ Obama voted no on counting revenues from Arctic drilling as part of the budget. NO is the pro-environment vote. [Roll Call 74, 3/16/06]

2005
+ Obama voted no to end debate on the Defense Appropriations Conference Report, which included a provision to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. NO is the pro-environment vote. [Roll Call #364, H.R.2863, 12/21/05]

+ Obama voted no on a budget reconciliation package that contained language opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development. NO is the pro-environment vote. [Roll Call #303, S.1932, 11/3/05]

+ Obama voted yes on and amendment to strike a provision counting revenues from drilling in the refuge. YES is the pro-environment vote. [Roll Call #52, Amendment 168, 3/16/05]

Public Lands and Logging

2005
+ Tongass logging: Obama voted yes on an amendment that would have ended taxpayer subsides for new commercial logging roads in the Tongass National Forest. [Roll Call #164, H.R. 2361 Amendment 1026, 6/29/05]

Clean Water

2005
+ Stormwater Cleanup:  Obama voted yes on an amendment that would include $900 million (over six years) to manage flooding and pollution caused by runoff from roads and highways in the Transportation Bill.  YES is the pro-environment vote.  [Roll Call vote #113, 04/28/05]

Other

2007
- Water project funding reform: Obama was absent when the Senate voted on an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act that would have established an independent commission to assess and prioritize water projects and direct funding away from pork barrel projects towards projects of real value and importance. YES is the pro-environment vote. [Roll call #165, H.R. 1495, 5/15/07]

2006
+ Corps peer review: Obama voted yes on an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act that would have ensured independent peer review of costly, controversial, or environmental critical U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects. YES is the pro-environment vote. [Roll call #208, S. 728 Amendment 4681, 7/19/06]

+ Corps peer review: Obama voted no on an amendment that would have left it up to the Corps to initiate peer review of their own projects and would have failed to ensure the independence of review panels. NO is the pro-environment vote. [Roll call #209, amendment 4682, 7/19/06]

2005
+ Nominee confirmation: Obama voted no on Bush’s anti-environment appointment of Justice Janice Rogers Brown to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. NO is the pro-environment vote. [Roll Call #131, 6/8/05]