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New Video Showcases Grassroots Support For Obama As Best Candidate For The Environment And Our Energy Future

(West Hartford, CT)  Environment Connecticut today endorsed Barack Obama for President, citing his clear and bold solutions to our current energy woes and strong commitment to the protection of our environment.  “Senator Obama has publicly committed to fully addressing the pressing problem of global warming and moving the United States toward a new energy future.  He has made clean energy one of the top issues of his campaign and as a public servant at the state and federal levels has a long and consistent record of supporting the environment,” said Christopher Phelps, Director of Environment Connecticut.

Environment Connecticut’s endorsement was coordinated with Environment America and the federation of 25 other state environmental organizations with more than 750,000 members and activists nationally.  Environment Connecticut has received significant support from members who sent in comments in response to our endorsement decision over the last few weeks, including;

-           “Obama is a proven environmentalist, and can lead our country toward energy independence and restoration of our natural resources” from Neil S. a member of Environment Connecticut in Watertown, CT, and

-          “Obama has committed to a tough but necessary multilateral approach to deal with future energy needs and with the increasing evidence of global warming caused by human activity,” from Joe. P, an Environment Connecticut member in Ridgefield, CT.

As a part of its endorsement, Environment Connecticut released a video of a sampling of members across the country making the case for Senator Obama as the next environmental president in their own words.  The video can be viewed at http://www.environmentamerica.org/issues/election-2008.

Over his career as a U.S. Senator, Senator Obama has voted with Environment America 86% of the time, including achieving a 90% on the 2008 Environment America Congressional scorecard.  His one vote missed in our 2008 scorecard was an absence rather than a vote in opposition. 

By comparison, Senator McCain has an extremely disappointing lifetime voting score of 30 percent for votes scored by Environment America.  John McCain has voted against requiring polluters to pay for clean-up of toxic waste sites; he voted against the public’s right to know about pollution in their communities; and Senator McCain has voted to weaken safe drinking water protections.  “Despite his willingness to buck his party on the existence of global warming which we very much appreciate, John McCain just isn’t the president we need to reverse eight years of the anti-environmental Bush Administration” noted Phelps.

Environment Connecticut’s national federation has prepared a report on the environmental records of both candidates, including their lifetime environmental voting records which is available at http://www.environmentamerica.org/issues/election-2008.

Environment Connecticut is committed to working with our federation of state organizations to mount an aggressive effort to secure a victory for Barack Obama including grassroots outreach to our members and the public.

“Barak Obama is the clear choice to protect Connecticut’s Environment and stand up to big oil and polluters,” concluded Phelps.