The election of Barack Obama promises a new era of eco-awareness in the US, says Sarah Wachter These are heady times for environmentalists in America. The initial euphoria of Barack Obama’s White House win hasn’t worn off yet. They say he is the American president with the most clearly-enunciated environmental platform of any in recent memory. Even though the financial crisis has taken centre stage, environmentalists think that’s good news, too, since Obama is talking about creating millions of green jobs to kickstart the spluttering US economy.
The election of Barack Obama promises a new era of eco-awareness in the US, says Sarah Wachter
These are heady times for environmentalists in America. The initial euphoria of Barack Obama’s White House win hasn’t worn off yet. They say he is the American president with the most clearly-enunciated environmental platform of any in recent memory. Even though the financial crisis has taken centre stage, environmentalists think that’s good news, too, since Obama is talking about creating millions of green jobs to kickstart the spluttering US economy.
“Right now it looks like environment policy is a high priority,†says Bob Bendick, director of government affairs for the Nature Conservancy. “Climate change, the environment, and the health of the planet are interrelated with human welfare and the economy.â€â€©
During his acceptance speech, Obama called out to “build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and 
nuclear proliferation, poverty and genocide, climate change and disease.â€â€©
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Indeed, environmentalists point out the four priorities for the new administration will be clean energy and green jobs, the economy, healthcare, and the war in Iraq.

Obama has recently stated that he wants to make the US a leader on climate change.Â
The main green elements of the Obama-Biden ‘new energy for America’ plan are: investing $150bn (€120bn) over 10 years to create five million green jobs, by stimulating private sector efforts on clean energy (a portion of this will be set aside to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles), with an accent on affordable sources, such as wind and solar power; putting a million plug-in hybrid cars (cars that have batteries which can be recharged, and both an electric motor and a backup internal combustion engine) on the road by 2015; implementing a nationwide cap-and-trade program to slash carbon emissions 80% by 2050; generating 25% of electricity from renewable sources by 2025; and increasing fuel efficiency standards for vehicles by 4% a year. Environmentalists also expect Obama will push for higher air quality standards by enforcing the Clean Air Act, something the previous administration didn’t do.

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