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Contact: Chuck Porcari (cell: (240) 286-7566) or Mark Sokolove (cell: (703) 599-7656) or (202) 785-8683 WASHINGTON - The League of Conservation Voters (LCV), the political voice of the national environmental and conservation community, today named Barack Obama (D) as a 2004 Environmental Champion in his race for election to the open U.S. Senate seat in Illinois. LCV Environmental Champions are candidates who have proven their pro-environment commitment through substantive action. LCV supports these outstanding leaders by rewarding them with direct contributions, fundraising, and occasionally running independent campaigns to help ensure they are elected to Congress as we continue to build America³ pro-environment majority. )s proud to name Barack Obama as an environmental champion,� Vice President for Policy. 4he Illinois Senate, he has proven himself as an environmental leader and demonstrated a strong commitment to clean air, clean water, and environmental justice. In the U.S. Senate, Obama will continue to be a true champion of public health and environmental protections.�le="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 80%">Obama is one of only six members of the Illinois State Senate to receive a 100% Environmental Voting Record Award for 2003 from the Illinois Environmental Council. In the state senate, Barack fought to raise standards on diesel emissions, co-sponsored legislation to promote renewable energy, worked to clean up the Lake Shore on the South Side of Chicago, and strongly supported Brownfields cleanup with the Illinois First environmental program. As the father of a five-year old daughter with asthma, Barack has a personal commitment to ensuring that we clean up smog and other pollutants in the air that contribute to asthma attacks among millions of children each year. In the U.S. Senate, he will work tirelessly to make sure we clean up dirty power plants, develop cleaner sources of energy, reduce vehicle emissions and support strong enforcement of the Clean Air Act. Through his work organizing some of Chicago³ poorest neighborhoods, he mobilized public housing residents in the Far South Side where there is a high concentration of landfills and toxic dumping in the area. As a U.S. Senator, Barack has pledged to alleviate environmental disparities that exist in some of our nation³ poorest communities. ²ack has seen first hand the role that race and poverty play in exposure to environmental problems. He is committed to making this a central part of his congressional agenda and we look forward to working closely with him on this and other environmental and public health issues,�����; For information on all of LCV³ 2004 Environmental Champions, visit our website. - 30 - The nonprofit League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is the political voice of the national environmental and conservation community. LCV, which is not a partisan organization, is the only national organization working full-time to hold Congress and the president accountable for their environmental actions. For more information, please visit us on the web at www.lcv.org.
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