Energy

Senator Obama's energy proposal includes doubling federal research funding for clean energy projects, investing in clean-coal technologies, and developing “safe and secure” nuclear energy. The plan sets a goal of having 25% of electricity come from renewable sources by 2025. It also calls on the federal government to be more energy efficient and to increase fuel standards, including annual increases in Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) targets.^[1]

Energy Grid

Obama states that "...our energy grid is outdated and inefficient, resulting in $50-$100 billion losses to the U.S. economy each year." He says that he will invest in installing a smart grid which would "help consumers produce electricity at home through solar panels or wind turbines, and be able to sell electricity back through the grid for other consumers" to help reduce demand on the grid during peak usage times.

Increasing Energy Prices

On April 25, 2008, Obama released a plan to fight raising energy prices. Details of the plan include:

• Imposing a windfall profit penalty for oil companies selling oil at prices of over $80 per barrel.
• Providing tax cuts for workers and families, including a "Making Work Pay" tax credit of $500 per person or $1000 per working family for 150 million workers.
• Temporarily suspending purchases for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SRV) until prices decrease.
• Reinstating federal supervision of the energy futures market.
• Providing tax credits and loans for domestic auto-makers to improve the fuel-efficiency of cars built domestically.
• Doubling fuel economy standards by 2030.
• Lifting the 60,000-per-manufacturer cap on buyer tax credits for energy efficient vehicles.
• Investing $150 billion over 10 years to advance clean energy technology.
• Establishing a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard that will require fuels suppliers to reduce the lifecycle carbon of their fuels by 10% by 2020.
• Requiring state governors and mayors to make "energy conservation" a part of their federal transportation funding plans.

Evolution/Intelligent Design

Obama has expressed his belief in evolution stating, in an interview with The New Yorker editor David Remnick, “[e]volution is more grounded in my experience than angels.”^[2]

In an interview with the York Daily Record in March 2008, Obama addressed the topic of science and religion, saying:

"I'm a Christian, and I believe in parents being able to provide children with religious instruction without interference from the state. But I also believe our schools are there to teach worldly knowledge and science. I believe in evolution, and I believe there's a difference between science and faith. That doesn't make faith any less important than science. It just means they're two different things. And I think it's a mistake to try to cloud the teaching of science with theories that frankly don't hold up to scientific inquiry."^[3]

Environment

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

In 2005, Senator Obama voted to ban drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. ^[4]

Climate Change

On April 15, 2008, climate change advisers to Obama, Clinton, and McCain, spoke at a panel hosted by the Society of Environmental Journalists on what their candidates would do to fight global climate change.

On April 20, 2007, Obama’s campaign announced a plan to combat global warming by setting a National Standard for Low Carbon Fuels (NSLCF) that will reduce gasoline consumption and the emission of greenhouse gases. Senator Obama also supports a 100% auction cap-and-trade program to provide incentives for corporations to develop clean energy. Obama would use some of the revenue from the cap-and-trade system to "invest in climate-friendly energy development^[5]" Obama would also reengage with the U.N. climate process and create a new international forum.

In the Senate, he co-sponsored the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 (S. 309), which calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80% of 1990 levels by 2050. He also co-introduced, with Senator Bunning (R-KY), the Coal-To-Liquid Fuel Promotion Act of 2007 (S. 155), which provides tax incentives for coal-to–liquid technology research and the construction of plants. Even though the legislation has yet to be voted on, environmentalists are concerned about his support of coal as a fuel source.

Healthcare

Obama’s Plan for a Healthy America, introduced on May 29, 2007, seeks to create a new national health plan that would allow individuals to buy coverage similar to that which is offered to members of Congress. It would also create a National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals’ purchase private insurance and serve as a watch dog to promote fairness and affordability among insurance providers.The plan will expand Medicaid and SCHIP and requires children to have health insurance. Adults will not be required to have health insurance.

Obama's technology plan also calls $10 billion dollars for the next five years for the adoption of a "standards-based" electronic health information system, which would include the adoption of electronic medical records.

In the Senate, Obama voted to replenish Medicare and Medicaid funding and to expand funding for SCHIP. In 2006, Obama introduced the Genomics and Personal Medicine Act (S. 3822), which would increase funding for genomics research.

A February 4, 2008 article in The New York Times, which detailed the differences between Obama's and Clinton's health care plans, concluded that because Obama's plan lacked a mandate it would be unable to achieve universal coverage if enacted.

Sex Education

Obama supports comprehensive sex education, in an December 2007 interview, Obama's aides said that Obama "believes that we should not continue to fund abstinence-only programs...While abstinence is one approach to reducing unintended pregnancies and STDs, Obama believes we should also support comprehensive and age-appropriate sex education." He is also an original cosponsor of the Prevention First Act which would ensure that all taxpayer-funded federal programs are medically accurate and include information about contraception.

HIV/AIDS

In a speech on World AIDS Day in December 2006, Senator Obama suggested actions to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS which included repairing the "the relationship between men and women, between sexuality and spirituality", increasing the use of condoms and possibly microbicides, and eliminating the stigma around getting tested for HIV.^[6]

As a presidential candidate, he pledged in November 2007 to increase the spending for global HIV/AIDS by $50 billion from 2009 to 2013 in an effort to help fight AIDS overseas.^[7]

The Obama campaign's HIV/AIDS plan includes:

• Lifting the ban on federal funding for needle exchange program to reduce AIDS transmission among drug users.
• Reauthorizing and increasing the funding by $1 billion per year for the next five years for the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
• Increasing donations to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.
• Develop a comprehensive strategy to fights HIV/AIDS in America within his first year in office.
• Age appropriate sex education programs.
• Increasing federal funding for "science-based HIV prevention programs."

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

On April 25, 2008, Obama released a statement on the proliferation of North Korean nuclear technology to Syria:

I am deeply disturbed by the evidence of North Korea's assistance to an illicit nuclear program in Syria. This represents a dangerous and completely unacceptable development. Unfortunately, it comes after nearly eight years of a failed policy that has been long on tough talk and short on results, as North Korea has withdrawn from the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty, quadrupled its stockpile of plutonium, resumed testing of long range missiles, detonated a nuclear weapon, and exported nuclear technology to Syria. It's time for aggressive diplomacy that verifiably ends North Korea's nuclear programs and accounts for all its proliferation activities. Until we are able to confirm that North Korea is no longer in the nuclear proliferation business, the United States should not lift sanctions on Pyongyang. When I am President, we will turn the page on yet another failed Bush policy with direct and tough diplomacy as part of the multilateral talks to hold North Korea accountable.^[8]

Space

The last sentence of Obama's education plan states that his education plan will be paid for in part by a five year delay in the implementation of NASA's Constellation program.

In January 2008, the Obama campaign released their space policy plan, which calls for the completion of the International Space Station, entering into serious negotiations with Russia and China to prevent the weaponization of space, continuing unmanned missions, and supporting the development of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicles (CEV).

Science

Obama's campaign has released a fact sheet touting his support of science as an Illinois state Senator and a U.S. Senator. It also includes proposals for supporting scientific research, including:

• making the R&D tax credit permanent
• increasing funding for successful STEM education programs for public schools
• increasing funding for biomedical research
• updating our patent and copyright system at home and abroad
• doubling federal funding for basic research
• augmenting tax and patent laws to facilitate research and innovation

Alec Ross, an aide who represented Senator Obama during the February 2008 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting said that Obama's plans included investing $10 billion a year to computerize medical records, and $150 billion over 10 years to develop biofuels, hybrid vehicles, and an updated electrical grid. He also said that Obama wants to increase foreign students in US graduate schools and "give them a path to citizenship."

Stem Cell Research

Obama supports expanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and voted for the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (S. 5), which was later vetoed by President Bush.

Technology

Obama's plan for technological development focuses on expanding broadband coverage and speed, ensuring network neutrality, and investing in medical technologies, environment-friendly energy innovations, and improving science education while also increasing funding for scientific research. Details of the plan include:

• Making the tax credit for R&D permanent.
• Appointing a Chief Technology Officer (CTO)to ensure the safety and transparency of our networks, expand the communications infrastructure, and use technology to increase the communication of citizens with the government.
• Increase the Federal Trade Commissions budget to track cyber-crime.
• Give U.S. citizens five days to review and comment via the White House website on any non-emergency legislation before signing it.
• Make a multi-year plan for the Universal Service Fund with a specified date switching the program from supporting voice communications to supporting affordable broadband.
• Create a Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund, which would be appropriated $10 billion annually, to expedite the commercialization of promising technologies.

Transparency in the Government

In March of 2008, Obama released a list of all the earmarks he had requested in the two years he served in the U.S. Senate. This move was part of his campaign's promise to restore openness to the government.^[9]

Speeches on Science and Health Policy Issues

April 25, 2008 Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: Press Avail on Energy Plan

October 8, 2007 Real Leadership for a Clean Energy Future

May 29, 2007 Cutting Costs and Covering America; A 21st Century Health Care System

December 1, 2006 World AIDS Day Speech: Race Against Time

September 20, 2006 Energy Independence: A Call for Leadership

April 03, 2006 Energy Independence and the Safety of Our Planet

February 28, 2006 Energy Security is National Security

October 18, 2005 Avian Flu

September 15, 2005 Securing Our Energy Future

March 11, 2005 CURE Keynote Address

March 08, 2005 Remarks of Senator Obama at Technet

SCIENCE IN THE DEBATES:

ABC News Democratic Debate, April 16, 2008

Question: But we've heard from politicians for a long time we're going to end dependence on foreign oil. I just have a quote: "The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now." That was Jimmy Carter in 1979. And it's gotten a whole lot worse since then.

Obama: .... And so the long-term trajectory is that we're going to have to get serious about increasing our fuel efficiency standards and investing in new technologies. That's something I'm committed to doing. I've talked about spending $150 billion over 10 years in an Apollo Project, a Manhattan Project to create the alternative energy strategies that will work not only for this generation but for the next.

View Transcript

Democratic Candidates Compassion Forum, April 13, 2008

Question: ...we also are involved in a ministry called True Love Waits [an abstinence and faith-based program], which has been credited by the government of Uganda from lowering the AIDS infection rate there dramatically from 30 percent to 6 percent. But we also teach a part of that, that faith has a role in the issue of HIV/AIDS. Do you concur with that and would you elaborate on that, please.

Obama: My view is, is that we should use whatever the best approaches are, the scientifically sound approaches are, to reduce this devastating disease all across the world.

And part of that, I think, should be a strong education component and I think abstinence education is important. I also think that contraception is important; I also think that treatment is important; I also think that we have to do more to make antiviral drugs available to people who are in extreme poverty....I do think that -- and I've said this when I was in Kenya -- that there is a behavioral element to AIDS that has to be addressed. And if there is -- if there's promiscuity and we are pretending that that's not an issue in spreading AIDS, then we're missing part of the answer.

But I also think that -- keep in mind, women are far more likely to be infected now between the ages of 18 and 25 than are men. And that's why focusing, for example, on the status of women, empowering women, giving them microbicides, or other strategies that would allow them to protect themselves when they sometimes in certain situations may not be able to protect themselves from having unprotected sex, all those things are going to be just as important, as well.

View Transcript

CNN Democratic Debate, February 22, 2008

Responding to Senator Clinton on health care:

Obama: Number one, understand that when Senator Clinton says a mandate, it's not a mandate on government to provide health insurance, it's a mandate on individuals to purchase it. And Senator Clinton is right; we have to find out what works. Now, Massachusetts has a mandate right now. They have exempted 20 percent of the uninsured because they have concluded that that 20 percent can't afford it. In some cases, there are people who are paying fines and still can't afford it, so now they're worse off than they were. They don't have health insurance and they're paying a fine.In order for you to force people to get health insurance, you've got to have a very harsh penalty, and Senator Clinton has said that we won't go after their wages. Now, this is a substantive difference. But understand that both of us seek to get universal health care. I have a substantive difference with Senator Clinton on how to get there.

View Transcript

MSNBC Democratic Debate, January 15th, 2008

Question: Anyone willing to pledge here tonight, beginning with you, Senator Obama, to kill the notion of Yucca Mountain?

Obama: I will end the notion of Yucca Mountain because it has not been based on the sort of sound science that can assure the people of Nevada that they're going to be safe. And that, I think, was a mistake.

Now, you hate to see billions of dollars having already been spent on a mistake, but what I don't want to do is spend additional billions of dollars and potentially create a situation that is not safe for the people of Nevada.

So I've already -- I've been clear from the start that Yucca, I think, was a misconceived project. We are going to have to figure out how we store nuclear waste. And what I want to do is to get the best experts around the table and make a determination, what are our options based on the best science available?

And you know, I think there's a solution that can be had that's good for the country but also good for the people of Nevada.

View Transcript

ABC Democratic Debate, January 5th, 2008

Question: On the day after a nuclear weapon goes off in an American city, what would we wish we had done to prevent it? And what will we actually do on the day after?

Obama: Well, as I said, I've already been working on this, and I think this is the most significant foreign policy issue that we confront. We would obviously have to retaliate against anybody who struck American soil, whether it was nuclear or not. It would be a much more profound issue if it were nuclear weapons.

That's why it's so important for us to rebuild the nuclear proliferation -- nonproliferation treaty that has fallen apart under this administration. We have not made a commitment to work with the Russians to reduce our own nuclear stockpiles. That has weakened our capacity to pressure other countries to give up nuclear technology.

We have not locked down the loose nuclear weapons that are out there right now. These are all things that we should be taking leadership on.

View Transcript

Huffington Post/Slate/Yahoo Candidate Mash-up, September 13, 2007

Question: You make the valid point there, in fact, how well we educate, that people who are at the core of American productivity is crucial to our future. And Don Oral, a user question from Bayside, N.Y., says how would you change the system to make American students competitive on the world scene?

Obama: …On K through 12 across the board we've got improved math and science instruction. And that means focusing on recruiting more math and science teachers, emphasizing math and science instruction, finding innovative ways to make it interesting for students. And I have to say this is an area where the president has the power to use the bully pulpit and to make math and science interesting and vibrant again. One of the things that I'm always struck by when I talk to engineers and scientists who are in their 50s and 60s is how many say they were inspired by JFK and the space program for going into science and math. And one area where I think we could actually do that is to really make a huge effort around energy independence. And if a president is talking about the importance of us engaging in research and development, doubling the amount of research dollars that are being put into basic science and basic research, all that can help lift up the importance of these areas of study for young people who basically take their cues from the larger culture….

View Transcript

CNN Democratic Debate, November 15, 2007

Question: Senator Obama, the price of oil is flirting with $100-a-barrel- mark right now, making all the more urgent the need for alternate fuel sources. You support nuclear energy as a part of the plan for the future, but there is an issue of what to do with the waste. You are opposed to the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository about 90 miles from here. Your state uses about -- gets about 48 percent of its power from nuclear compared to 20 percent for most other states, yet you are opposed to bringing nuclear waste from other states and keeping it in Illinois. The question is, if not in your backyard, who's?

Obama:Well, as I've said, I don't think it's fair to send it to Nevada...because we're producing it. So what have to do is we've got to develop the storage capacity based on sound science. Now, laboratories like Argonne in my own home state are trying to develop ways to safely store nuclear waste without having to ship it across the country and put it in somebody else's backward. But keep in mind that I don't think nuclear power is necessarily our best option. It has to be part of our energy mix. We have a genuine crisis that has to be addressed. And as president, I intend to address it. And here's what we have to do.

We have to, first of all, cap greenhouse gases, because climate change is real and it's going to impact Nevada, and it's impacting the entire planet. That means that we're going to have to tell polluters: We're going to charge you money when you send pollution into the air that's creating climate change. That money we can then reinvest in solar, in wind, in biodiesel, in clean coal technology, and in superior nuclear technology.

View Transcript

Endnotes

1. ↑ Barack Obama, Barak Obama's Plan to Make America a Global Energy Leader http://www.barackobama.com/2007/10/08/obama_to_announce_new_plan_to.php
2. ↑ Barak Obama, interview by David Remnick. The New Yorker. October 23, 2006. http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/magazines/barack_obama_i_inhaled_that_was_the_point_46068.asp
3. ↑ Joyce, Tom. "Obama Talks to York." York Daily Record.March 30 2008.http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_8744384
4. ↑ S AMDT 168 to S.Con.Res. 18 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.con.res.00018:
5. ↑ Barack Obama. Barack Obama's plan to make America a global energy leader.
6. ↑ Race Against Time, World AIDS Day Speech. December 1, 2006. http://obama.senate.gov/speech/061201-race_against_ti/
7. ↑ Barack Obama pledges to increase spending on global HIV/AIDS to $50 billion. November 1, 2007. http://www.news-medical.net/?id=32046
8. ↑ "Sen. Obama's Statement on North Korea's proliferation of nuclear technology to Syria," Obama News and Speeches, http://www.barackobama.com/2008/04/25/sen_obamas_statement_on_north.php
9. ↑ Matthew Mosk. Obama Lists Requests for Pet-Project Funding. March 14, 2008. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/13/AR2008031303826.html?nav=rss_politics/congress