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Sen. Obama Addresses Global Warming

-- John -- 02/17/2007

In comments on February 17 before a packed gymnasium at Caflin University in Orangeburg, SC, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) discussed finding solutions to global warming in the context of both national security and economic development.  According to Obama, the hundreds of millions of dollars that Americans spend every day on oil ends up "funding both sides of the war on terrorism."  Every time countries like Saudi Arabia want to raise oil prices, "they simply turn off the tap."  But by developing alternative fuel sources through crops like corn and switch grass, Obama argued not only that the United States will achieve energy independence, but that South Carolina will transform its rural economy:  "We are going to locate these [biofuel] plants in rural areas all across South Carolina."  And touching on the the vulnerability of South Carolina's coast to global warming, Obama pointed out that the melting of the polar ice caps could put the city of Charleston under water.   What has been lacking is presidential leadership, the Senator concluded, comparing the need to transform the US energy economy to President Kennedy's decision to land a man on the moon.