Week 3, Item #5

"We are not acting as good stewards of God's Earth when our bottom line puts the size of our profits before the future of our planet."
-- Oct. 14, 2007, in a speech at an interfaith forum on climate change

This blog is focused on an interview between Amanda Griscom Little and Senator Barack Obama on the website Grist and Outside , a non-profit organization that focuses on environmental news located in Seattle, Washington.

http://www.grist.org/feature/2007/07/30/obama/

Through a series of question-and-answer, Little offers an excerpt of the Senator's beliefs and goals for the United States and its standings in the environmental affairs. He is not only proud of his good track record in environmental issues but realizes his obligations in upholding the task of voting on environmental-friendly bills. Some of his biggest contributors and endorsers of his campaign are groups like the Sierra Club and the LCV. Obama believes that environmental issues are apart of the "three most important issues" that we face here at home, along with a good education system and better health care. With that said, he also recognizes that the war in Iraq will be one of our biggest challenges as a nation, he believes that the American people have been able to witness the problems of this dependency on foreign oil through the war and the economy.

Q. You've received a lot of criticism from enviros of your support for coal-to-liquids technology. You recently shifted your position somewhat, but haven't retracted it. Why?
A. I was always firm that if the life-cycle carbon emissions of coal-to-liquid were higher than gasoline, we couldn't do it because it would contradict my position on reducing greenhouse gases. But I also believe that, because of the abundance of coal in the U.S., coal-based fuels could be a substitute for some of the oil we import from the Middle East, as long as we can reduce the resulting CO2 emissions to 20 percent below current levels from petroleum-based fuels.

The Senator received some backlash on the issue of CTL (coal-to liquids) technology from environmental-activists. Although the plan would limit our dependency on foreign oil, the greenhouse effects are much higher. Some critics also feel that his stance is partially affected by the fact that his home state of Illinois, is the coal capital of the country. They believe that it would "benefit industries in his home state of Illinois but do little if anything to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions". To me, the issue of CTL comes down to the problem of the lesser-of-two evils, as a country and part of the world, is it more important for us to reduce the damaging emissions, or is it more important for us to be less dependent on foreign energy.

My reaction to this interview was very ambivalent. I felt like the Senator had very many promising objectives but his plan at times seemed a bit vague. However, we do have to keep in mind that it was probably a short-term interview done over the phone. Obviously, not enough time to go into details about his cap-and-trade program or his proposal on National Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Although I do realize that I am not an expert on a lot of these subjects, I do think that the environmental issue is something that the Senator is passionate about and it is something that is on the top of his agenda.