Sierra Club endorses Obama for president

The Sierra Club has endorsed Barack Obama for president - as the change America needs.

Club executive director Carl Pope says, "We believe Sen. Obama is the change our nation needs - the leader who will put America on the path to a clean-energy economy that will create and keep millions of jobs, spur innovation and opportunity, make us a more secure nation, and help us solve global warming."

"Our endorsement marks the beginning of a massive mobilization of thousands of members around the country for the campaign - on the phone, on the ground, on the airwaves, and on-line, spreading the message that as president, Barack Obama will lead America into the clean-energy future and that we support his plan to solve both our economic challenges and the challenge of global warming at the same time," said Club president Allison Chin.

Sen. Obama's plan will help heal America's economy and environment.

•  Sen. Obama has presented a bold and comprehensive plan for addressing climate change by doing what the world's scientists have told us needs to be done. His plan would cut our carbon-dioxide emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.
•  His plan requires that polluters pay for the global-warming pollution they emit, investing the money into clean energy, green jobs, and aid for the lowest-income Americans affected by higher energy costs.
•  He has called for 25% of U.S. electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025, and for improving energy efficiency in the U.S. 50% by 2030. These targets would create tens of thousands of jobs in growing industries while at the same time cutting energy bills.

Barack Obama has called for "an energy policy that puts a price on pollution and makes the oil companies invest their record profits in clean, renewable sources of energy that will create millions of new jobs and leave our children a safer planet." Pope points out that: "We really could not have said it better ourselves. That is why he is our candidate and we will do everything in our power to help elect him the next president of the United States."

Other high points of Sen. Obama's environmental platform include that he:

• opposes destructive oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and on fragile coasts;
• opposes the storage of nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain repository being built in southern Nevada;
• will restore environmental protections that the Bush administration rolled back by executive order;
• calls for tougher pollution regulations on factory farms;
• is primary co-sponsor of the Lead Poisoning Reduction Act to protect children from lead poisoning.

The Sierra Club was an early backer of Barack Obama when, as a state senator, he ran in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, basing our endorsement on "his strong record of support for clean air, wetlands protection, and clean energy."