In his Democratic radio address today, President-elect Barack Obama laid out the first three steps of his economic recovery plan - the first of which, he said, will be making public buildings more efficient.
"First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world," said Obama. "We need to change that."
"We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs," he continued. "That won't just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work."
Another part of that plan, he said, will be to "launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen." That includes making them more energy efficient, he said.
He also pledged to make the "single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s," "renew our information superhighway" by expanding access to broadband, and improve health care by providing access to electronic medical records.
"We need action - and action now," he said. "That is why I have asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street that will help save or create at least two and a half million jobs, while rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reducing our dependence on oil, and saving billions of dollars."
Here's the video of the address:
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Tom Philpott Posted 1:56 am
06 Dec 2008
Victual Reality
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JMG Posted 10:45 am
06 Dec 2008
http://is.gd/axgD
Michael O'Hare:
I think Mark is cutting Obama far too much slack on global warming. Habitability of the planet is not a lagniappe that might spiff up an economic stimulus. It's a very big deal, at least if you care about your grandchildren, not to mention the hundreds of millions of Bangla Deshis who will be on the road looking for a place to live in a crowded neighborhood, and sooner than we thought last year or the year before. Think this is bad?: imagine it in Dacca, and not for a day, but permanently.
Surely we can wait on something so big and so slow while we fix the economy, right? Nope; we already did that (wait), since the early eighties. Now it's an emergency. Expensive, though, right? Yup, we spent it for nothing in Iraq and frittered it away in stupid finance tricks, but Obama has to play the hand he was dealt, not the hand he deserves.
I have occasionally worried that for all his many merits, our new president is a senator from a corn state and a senator from a coal state. Not for long, and he didn't grow up there, but unfortunately simply ending the unspeakable irresponsibility of the Bush administration about climate is not enough. In particular, talking about roads and bridges in an infrastructure speech without a mention of transit or land use policy isn't in the ball park: it isn't "could be better"; it's flat-out wrong. We have a lot of bad infrastructure that makes us drive a lot of bad cars too much. We don't need to spend a penny on roads or anything to do with squeezing another few years out of the gasoline commuter lifestyle; we need to spend billions on undoing the damage it's already done, and now. Those unemployed hardhats can lay track and pave bike paths just as well as they can pour lane-miles.
I'm sorry to say, Obama has, on the whole, dropped the ball on climate change; he's not anti-science or anti-environment, but he's failing a big test here. I've wallowed in the pleasure of anticipating leadership from a basically serious person with his heart in the right place up to now, like the rest of us, but I am declaring the honeymoon over. From now on he needs to start saying what we need to hear on the biggest issue of the next couple of decades. "Better than Bush" encompasses a range from A down to D-, and on the environment, we need A- leadership, not a Band-Aid or a headpat. And we especially don't need enabling of a catastrophic carbon addiction, whether implicit or explicit.
All together now, and you too, Barack:
No.More.Roads.
No.More.Parking.
No.More.Sprawl.
The 5% Project
Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay.
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eutopianow Posted 4:51 am
07 Dec 2008
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randino Posted 9:07 pm
07 Dec 2008
I want Obama to put solar collectors on the White House. Originally installed as a symbol by Carter, and removed as a symbolic step by Reagan. Their return would be a clear message.
Randy Cunningham
Cleveland, OH
Randy Cunningham
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swan Posted 4:49 am
08 Dec 2008
It's not that hard - or expensive - to use safe materials. It just requires a change. Are we ready for that? I changed my household to non-toxic, unscented personal care products, cleaning products and pest control. I spend less money than I did on fancy, toxic products that were doing nothing but making me sick and lining some CEO's pocket - and my house is really clean. I'm also having fewer asthma attacks.
Some school districts and municipal buildings have already adopted a fragrance-free, pesticide-free, non-toxic policy (thank you, Massachusetts). This is a change that it is time for. If you want something that smells good, try really fresh, clean air. When is the last time you smelled that?
swan
http://goodwordswan.wildflowerstew.com
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tmullins Posted 4:52 am
08 Dec 2008
It's pure insanity ! Main Street Appalachia and Pound are Third World America thanks to Greed.
Hannity shut the fuck up !
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amylynn1022 Posted 2:27 am
09 Dec 2008
AmyLynn
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