President Barack Obama had some firm words for critics of his economic stimulus plan in his first presidential news conference on Monday night, using some of his most forceful comments to defend the green energy investments in the plan. "Why would that be a waste of federal money?" he asked. "We can have a respectful debate about whether or not we should be involved in energy policy, but don't call it wasteful spending," he continued.
"We're creating jobs immediately by weatherizing homes ... and we're saving money for taxpayers $2 billion when it comes to federal buildings." Earlier in the day, at a town-hall meeting in Elkhard, Ind., Obama also talked up clean energy and the jobs it can create.
First Lady Michelle Obama made similar points during a speech to employees of the Interior Department on Monday. "At a time when so many Americans are out of work, sound energy and environmental policies are going to help create thousands of jobs through the economic recovery and reinvestment plan that Barack is out there promoting today," she said.
In other, but related, news.
US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday moved away from "drill-only" energy policies as he blocked a last-minute attempt by the administration of George W. Bush to push through the sale of offshore leases to gas and oil companies.
"On January 16, the last business day of the Bush administration, the administration proposed a new five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing," Salazar told a news conference.
What Salazar called a "midnight action" by the previous administration favored big oil while ignoring developers of renewable energy.
It would have moved forward from 2012 to 2010 the creation of a new energy development plan that would affect some 300 million offshore acres on the outer continental shelf (OCS), from the US eastern seaboard to the Pacific Ocean off California, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.
"For the last eight years, America has taken one road to energy independence, which was drill, drill, drill," said Salazar.
"I intend to do what the prior administration failed to do and that is to build a framework for offshore renewable energy development so that we can incorporate the great potential for wind, wave and ocean current energy into our offshore energy strategy," Salazar said.
