Field & Stream magazine interview with Barack Obama

[IndianaGreen]

I read the October edition of Field & Stream and it had a wonderful interview with Obama. It was side-by-side with one with McCain. Obama has some very good ideas on the environment and how it is essential for hunters and fishermen to protect our natural resources. F&S is not endorsing a candidate, although I did see a couple of hysterical ads about Obama from GOP-front organizations. DNC should place ads in magazines such as F&S.

Obama even discussed the "clinging to guns" statement. I now found it on the web:

An Exclusive Interview with Senator Barack Obama


LICATA: If you were elected president, what would be your No. 1 conservation goal?

SENATOR OBAMA: I think the most important thing that the next president can do is establish a better working relationship between the federal government and the states, because what we've seen under the Bush administration is the ability of special interests, whether it's the oil companies or the gas companies or the coal companies or what have you, to do end runs around the interests of hunters and sportsmen conservationists in the states. go to Washington, get certain regulations overwritten--for example, the watering down of the Clean Water Act--so that rules that had been in place for generations around wetlands were suddenly eroded. Or the roadless forest reserve, where suddenly you've got a change in administrative rules without much consultation. I think that people in the states know best the importance of access to public lands, and we've got to restore some balance there.

LICATA: In your career, what is the conservation legislation that you're most proud of?

SENATOR OBAMA: Well, I sat in the Environment and Public Works Committee and had a range of legislation come before me. Probably the thing that I'm most proud of is fighting off some of the efforts to diminish the Clean Air Act. That was a tough set of votes for me because I come from a coal state. But some of the regulations that were put in place I think would have had a long-term effect on our efforts to preserve our public lands, and our private lands, as well. When I was in the state legislature, I was a cosponsor of the Wetlands Protection Act there. I worked extensively in efforts to create smart growth strategies so that you didn't have subdivisions and development constantly spreading out...working with others to try to encourage land trusts and land preservation strategies, I think that's an area that has been very fruitful. But my overarching philosophy is that we have to be good stewards of the land, and we've got to think in terms of sustainability. We're going to have some development. I mean, there's going to be drilling.

LICATA: The current administration passed some executive orders that made drilling and energy extraction the top priority for management of federal lands. How do you override that legislation at a time when people are clamoring for gas and looking for new sources of energy?

SENATOR OBAMA: Look, you're absolutely right. Since 1999, the amount of drilling on public lands has gone up 260 percent, and yet prices have skyrocketed. And it indicates a basic truth, which is we're not going to drill our way out of these problems. This is something that I've consistently said. This is an area where I've got to disagree with both the Bush administration and with John McCain. There are certain areas where drilling may be appropriate. North Dakota, it looks like, may have new oil fields that have not been explored. And for us to tap into areas...where there's not a big conservation impact, no problem. ANWR, on the other hand, is a great example. This is our last great wilderness refuge. And if we started tomorrow, we would not see a drop of oil out of ANWR for a decade. And even at peak production, experts estimate that it would have an impact of maybe 4 cents on a gallon of gas. And that's 15, 20 years from now, when, who knows what gas prices are going to be? Now, it's just not a smart strategy. much better for us to think in terms of energy efficiency and, you know, exploit the resources that we have when they are accessible and when the trade-offs are such where we're not destroying land that we want to pass on to the next generation.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/article/Hunting/Special-Report-An-Exclusive-Interview-with-Senator-Barack-Obama