Green Jersey

Environment NJ endorses Obama

Environment New Jersey announced yesterday that it chooses Obama and hopes you will too.

In endorsing Obama, the group joined the ranks of the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, Friends of the Earth and others.

In a statement, executive director Dena Mottola Jaborska said Obama had “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.”

The endorsement was coordinated with that of the national Environment America and its other statewide environmental groups.

Why they dig him: Obama has voted with Environment America 86 percent of the time and achieved a 90 percent on the group’s 2008 Congressional Scorecard.

John McCain “was absent from each and every environment- or energy-related vote” and, thus, did much worse.

(Republicans for Environmental Protection has said McCain has a good excuse for missing those votes: He was campaigning at the time “against GOP challengers who had no similar commitments” and hasn’t missed that many before or since. The group, which seems pretty excited about McCain — can you blame them? — has endorsed him.)

Environment America prefers Obama because: Obama promoted recycling long ago as a NYPIRG organizer, recognizes the need for a shift away from fossil fuels, and co-sponsored the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007, the toughest global warming legislation yet, the group says. He’s also voted to end some dirty tax breaks for companies, to raise vehicle efficiency standards, and to not drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And more.

McCain has supported new domestic oil drilling, that short-term feel-good gas tax holiday, more nuclear and coal power and global warming standards that don’t cut it, among other things, the group says. To boot, he has a load of senior advisors and staff who are lobbyists for the oil industry. (To be fair, we’ve heard Obama has one.) He’s also taken $1.4 million from oil industry employees in the 2007-2008 election cycle — more than any other politician — according to the Center for Responsive Politics. (To be fair, Obama has taken just under one-third as much.)

But it’s not about being perfect — politicians never are. It’s about who’s better environmentally, and both Environment America and Environment New Jersey think Obama is. By far.