Posted on 12/02/2011 12:41:29 PM PST by mdittmar
This morning, President Obama met with former President Bill Clinton to announce the next piece of the "We Can't Wait" campaign -- a $4 billion effort to improve energy efficiency in buildings across the country.
The two were joined by Tom Donohue -- the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- and Randi Weingarten -- the president of the American Federation of Teachers.
The group toured a building in northwest Washington that's currently seeing an efficiency upgrade. That improvement employs around 250 full-time workers and will save the building $200,000 a year on its energy bills.
Making our buildings more energy efficient is one of the fastest, easiest, and cheapest ways for us to create jobs, save money, and cut down on harmful pollution, President Obama said:
It is a trifecta, which is why you’ve got labor and business behind it. It could save our businesses up to $40 billion a year on their energy bills – money better spent growing and hiring new workers. It would boost manufacturing of energy-efficient materials. And when millions of construction workers have found themselves out of work since the housing bubble burst, it will put them back to work doing the work that America needs done. So this is an idea whose time has come.
As part of today’s announcement, President Obama directed all Federal agencies to make at least $2 billion worth of energy efficiency upgrades over the next two months. Additionally, 60 private companies, hospitals, cities, states, colleges, and universities, among others, have collectively committed another $2 billion in energy efficiency retrofits to 1.6 billion square feet of property—roughly the equivalent of 500 Empire State Buildings.
The investments announced today are part of President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative, which set a goal of improving energy efficiency in commercial buildings by 20 percent by 2020. The initiative will reduce energy bills for businesses by $40 billion per year, and one report found it could create up to 114,000 jobs.
More seed moeny for kickbacks.
Wouldn’t it just be cheaper to ship bunches of ‘rats to Cuba and Venezuela and abandon the buildings?
90% will end up in pockets and we will never be told where it all goes.
Boy, what part of “we are broke” does this guy not understand!
Hmmm, why was this person there?
Boy, what part of “we are broke” does this guy not understand!
But, but aren’t those shovel ready jobs he promised? s/
The sooner Obama becomes unemployed the better our country will be.
That does leave one question — if improving buildings’ energy efficiency is such a good deal, why aren't the owners already doing it? Why should taxpayers subsidize building owners for improving their buildings? Why should taxpayers, who already own efficient buildings pay to improve other peoples’ buildings?
Cause,children can’t learn until Solar Panels are on the roof.
I’m filing this under “As Long As We’re Driving Downhill, We Don’t Need Any Gas”
Should I put 'er in neutral and coast as fur as I kin?
Or should I leave 'er in gear and use no fuel due to decel fuel shutoff?
'course turning 'er off and coasting is good too.
Isn’t all spending supposed to originate in the House? Where are our reps’ oversight? Where are house bills written to stop this “can’t wait” spending of his? What’s going on?
Sorry Bambi, this is complete BS. More energy efficient buildings are ALWAYS more expensive. I work in the industry and when it comes time to cut costs, get what gets cut first. Yep, the expensive energy "efficient" items.
I won't even go into Green (LEED) buildings. FUBO.
For a couple of $Mil I’ll make my house as energy efficient as he wants
How is he going to ‘pay for’ this?
4 billion is a hell of a slush fund for his election contributors
Oh great. More government money laundered into his campaign and personal accounts.
has congress already appropriated money for this?
how can they when they have not made a budget in 2 years
If “ - - - Obama directed all Federal agencies to make at least $2 billion worth of energy efficiency upgrades over the next two months,- - - “ then does the US House of Representatives have ANY “control of the pursestrings?”
= $4 billion giveaway to unionized building trades to get out the vote next November
Ah, the advantages of incumbency...
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