The Presidential Candidates and Where They Stand on the Environment

Now that Barack Obama has secured the Democrat's party nomination, the list of presidential front runners becomes increasingly shorter; this also means the list of possible policies that effect the environment becomes that more definitive. But where does each candidate stand exactly? In order to help you be more informed come November, very helpful website, OnTheIssues.org, attempts to list "Every Political Leader on Every Issue," including the issue of the environment. The site displays a verbose list of stances, quotes and even past voting records on legislation all pertaining to environmental issues. So let's see how your favorite candidate stacks up: Sen. Barack Obama (Democrat, IL):

• Regulate animal feeding operations for pollution. (Feb 2008)
• Will end the notion of Yucca Mountain nuclear storage. (Jan 2008)
• Promote green technologies and fuel efficiency standards. (Dec 2007)
• Protect the Great Lakes & our National Parks and Forests. (Aug 2007)
• Voted YES on including oil & gas smokestacks in mercury regulations. (Sep 2005)

Sen. John McCain (Republican, AZ)

• Support much tougher regulations on emission requirements. (Jan 2008)
• Economic & environmental interests not mutually exclusive. (Sep 2007)
• 1996: Put 3.5B acres of land into wilderness protection. (Jan 2004)
• Voted NO on reducing funds for road-building in National Forests. (Sep 1997)
• End commercial whaling and illegal trade in whale meat. (Jun 2001)

For the list in its entirety along with context compared to other presidential candidates, you can visit the site's environment section. But why stop at presidential candidates? Check out where your local Senator or Congressmen in your district stands on the environment.

[Photo Credits]

Written by: AJ Papa

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