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:
