Green Jersey

The greener man wins

Barack Obama, the candidate who received near-universal support from the nation’s environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Environment N.J. and the League of Conservation Voters, is the president-elect.

In an earlier post, we mentioned that the national Environment America had Obama voting with them 86 percent of the time and gave him a 90 percent on their 2008 Congressional Scorecard, compared to a poor showing — literally — for McCain. In 2003, Obama was one of only six senators to be given a 100 percent ranking by the Illinois Environmental Council.

He hasn’t made the obviously green choice all of the time. But Gregory Galluzzo, a community organizer who trained a young Obama in Chicago, says he will be “an environmental president” in a recent article in Plenty Magazine.

In the choices Obama has made as he’s progressed from the South Side to Springfield to Washington, Galluzzo sees the same tensions confronted by every grassroots activist: idealism marbled with pragmatism, a readiness to compromise to get things done, a willingness to settle for incremental change. “When Barack Obama becomes president we’ll have an environmental president,” he says. “But will he be a purist on every environmental issue? The answer is no.”

What do you think Obama’s historic win means for issues like alternative energy, cleaner air and water, and climate change? We’d love to hear from you.

More: “Coal and Clear Skies: Obama’s Balancing Act” (Plenty Magazine)