From USA Today:
Obama Shifts Stance On Environmental Issues
… Read the restWASHINGTON — In May 1998, at the urging of the state’s coal industry, the Illinois Legislature passed a bill condemning the Kyoto global warming treaty and forbidding state efforts to regulate greenhouse gases.
Barack Obama voted “aye.”The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee now calls climate change “one of the greatest moral challenges of our generation”…
The Obama campaign did not respond to questions about his support for the coal industry, except to address his 1998 Kyoto vote. The campaign said in a statement that the Kyoto treaty did not have “meaningful and achievable emissions targets,” and that Obama “did not believe that state agencies in Illinois should unilaterally take steps to implement a global policy on their own …” The statement said Obama supports investing in technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal burning… Obama also drew criticism for sponsoring a bill in January 2007 to devote $8 billion in subsidies to a technology to convert coal to liquid fuel.