President Obama supports solar at Nellis Air Force Base

29 May 2009

The President visits Nellis Air Force Base, in Las Vegas to mark the 100th day of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act by highlighting the development and use of geothermal and solar energy. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.

The President noted in his remarks the Recovery Act has already saved or created more than 150,000 jobs, but has been taking a closer look at some of the projects affected by the stimulus act.

While visiting the site encompassing solar panels, President Obama said, ‘More than 72,000 solar panels built on part of an old landfill provide 25 per cent of the electricity for the 12,000 people who live and work here at Nellis. That’s the equivalent of powering about 13,200 homes during the day. It’s a project that took about half a year to complete, created 200 jobs, and will save the United States Air Force, which is the largest consumer of energy in the federal government, nearly $1m a year.’

The solar energy is set to reduce harmful carbon pollution by 24,000 tonnes annually.

‘One hundred days ago, in the midst of the worst economic crisis in half a century, we passed the most sweeping economic recovery act in history, a plan designed to save jobs, create new ones, and put money in people’s pockets. It’s a plan designed not only to revive the economy in the short term, but to rebuild the economy over the long term,’ the US President added.

As the President spoke about creating jobs through green technology investment, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis expressed full support for the creation of a green economy.

‘Investments in the green economy can revitalise old industries, create new industries and generate new jobs for our workforce. These are jobs that will stay in the US and cannot be outsourced. They will help pave a pathway out of poverty; strengthen urban and rural communities. Through these jobs we can export products – not paychecks. And these jobs will help rebuild a strong middle class and protect the health of our citizens and planet,’ Secretary Solis said.

According to the Labor Secretary, the Labor Department is planning to release $500m from the Recovery Act for grants to prepare workers for green collared jobs.

‘In these tough economic times, there are those that argue that we can’t afford to focus on the environment. But if we work to create a new clean energy economy, we can both make our planet cleaner, and provide good stable work for all Americans,’ Secretary Solis concluded.

Copyright © 2009 newnet

Tags: energy efficiency, solar

This story was published on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 2:26 pm and is filed under North America, energy efficiency, solar. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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