Are you listening AMERICA?
The President visits a UPS customer center to speak about public and private Green Fleets as one small piece of his Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future, gas prices, and the latest jobs numbers. April 1, 2011.
Obama Continues Push for Clean Energy at Maryland UPS Facility
By JESSICA HARPER
LANDOVER, Md. (April 1, 2011) — President Obama took his energy security push to a UPS shipping house here Friday, where he praised the company’s use of electric vehicles in its daily operations.
This use of green energy, he said, feeds into a broader plan set forth by his administration: He plans to cut America’s foreign oil imports by one-third in a little over a decade.
“That is achievable, it is necessary, it is good for our future, and we are going to get it done,” he said, soon after taking the podium at the UPS Capital Division DC Building. “I’m confident we can get it done.”
The president named advanced biofuel research and new incentives for natural gas fleets as essential to making his plan a reality.
UPS supervisor Tony Strickland beamed as the president spoke.
“It has been the buzz all week,” said Strickland, a Silver Spring resident who oversees the Landover branch. “Even employees unable to make it were really excited for the ones who are here today to see him. Read more here.
Hat tip Jeff@ JJP THANK YOU!
“I don’t think any president has taken alternative energy more seriously than Obama. He campaigned on it and delivered on it. When the focus was on stimulating the economy, he made sure green jobs and alternative energy were part of the package.
Tying alternative energy to long term employment and industry growth is a very smart move.”
February 17, 2009, 3:40 pm Obama Signs Stimulus Packed With Clean Energy Provisions
By KATE GALBRAITH
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/obama-signs-stimulus-packed-with-clean-energy-provisions/
President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus package today, and the clean energy industry — among the biggest winners — is celebrating.
The signing ceremony was heavily loaded with solar symbolism: Mr. Obama signed the bill after touring the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, which has solar panels on its roof. He was also introduced by Blake Jones, head of Namaste Solar Electric, a Colorado company that installed solar panels on the governor’s mansion there.
(As of this writing, the company’s Web site appears to have crashed, perhaps under the weight of the attention.)
“It’s an investment that will double the amount of renewable energy produced over the next three years,” said Mr. Obama, who also promised that the bill would help “transform the way we use energy.”
The text of the bill is posted by the House Appropriations Committee here. This detailed summary is particularly helpful.
The provisions include:
* A large sum for energy efficiency, including $5 billion for low-income weatherization programs; over $6 billion in grants for state and local governments; and several billion to modernize federal buildings, with a particular emphasis on energy efficiency.
* $11 billion for “smart grid” investments.
* $3.4 billion for carbon capture and sequestration demonstration projects (otherwise known as “clean coal”).
* $2 billion for research into batteries for electric cars.
* $500 million to help workers train for “green jobs.”
* A three-year extension of the “production tax credit” for wind energy (as well as a tax credit extension for biomass, geothermal, landfill gas and some hydropower projects).
* The option, available to many developers, of turning their tax credits into direct cash, with the government underwriting 30 percent of a project’s cost.