Obama Environmental Report Card

Good - Obama has ordered the US Department of Energy to draft regulations to make ovens, vending machines, microwave ovens, dishwashers and light bulbs more energy-efficient.

Good - Camilla Cavendish in the Times: "The first two executive orders signed by the President were, he said, a “downpayment” towards the green economy. One tightened fuel-efficiency standards for cars, an issue once thought to be politically untouchable. The other gave permission to states to move faster than the Federal Government."

Good - Lisa Jackson, the head of the US environmental protection agency, has said that the government will no longer stand in the way of requiring coal and oil-fired power plants to install more stringent mercury controls.

Bad - The US Senate's version of the stimulus package has $50 billion in loan guarantees that could be used to build new nuclear reactors and liquid coal plants: "On Monday, twenty environmental and watchdog groups sent letters to the Senate urging the $50 billion loan provision be removed from the bill." Obama and liquid coal is not new. In January 2007, he introduced a bill (with Republican Senator Jim Bunning) to "evaluate the feasibility of including coal-to-oil fuels in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and provide incentives for research and plant construction." In an email sent out by his campaign in June 2007, he said he supported coal-to-liquid fuels, so long as they emit 20% less life-cycle carbon than conventional fuels."

Bad - Obama's stimulus package is skewed in favour of motorways. It has $30 billion for highway construction and only $12 billion for public transit. Greenpeace USA calculates: "If $30 billion were spent on light rail and repairing highways instead of building new ones, the greenhouse-gas emissions would be 10 to 50 times less, because highways tend to encourage more driving and sprawl."