Creating a Green Impact Zone

July 08, 2010 | 13:36 | Public Domain

President Obama speaks about building a green energy economy and creating new  jobs to employees of Smith Electric, a Kansas City, MO company that is using a grant from the Recovery Act to build all-electric trucks and help create a "Green Impact Zone" in a 150-block area of Kansas City.

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Remarks by the President on the Economy at Smith Electric Vehicles in Kansas City, Missouri

Smith Electric Vehicles
Kansas City, Missouri

12:13 P.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody.  Good to see you.  (Applause.)  You don’t need to do that.  It’s good to see you.  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  Thank you so much.  Everybody -- everybody have a seat. 

Usually they announce me with some fancy thing, and I think I messed up -- I just walked out here.  (Laughter.)  So I hope you didn’t mind.  But on the way out, if you want, we can play the Ruffles and Flourishes and all that.

I want to, before I start, acknowledge some people who have just done a wonderful job for this area, but also a wonderful job for the country.  First of all, one of the best governors that we’ve got in the United States of America, Governor Jay Nixon.  (Applause.)  One of my -- not just my favorite senators but one of my favorite people and a great friend of mine who is fighting every day for the people of Missouri, Senator Claire McCaskill.  (Applause.) 

We’ve got two outstanding members of Congress, one from this side and one from that side -- Congressman Emanuel Cleaver -- (applause) -- and Congressman Dennis Moore.  (Applause.) 

And finally, I just want to acknowledge all the wonderful people at Smith Electric Vehicles and their energetic and outstanding staff. 

It is outstanding to be here, and I’m not going to take a long time.  I just want to spend some time shaking hands and thanking you for the great work that you’ve done.  I just had a chance to get a tour and saw some of the battery-powered trucks that you’re manufacturing.  I had a chance to talk to some of the folks who build them.  But the reason I’m here today is because, at this plant, you’re doing more than just building new vehicles.  You are helping to fight our way through a vicious recession and you are building the economy of America’s future.

Now, it’s not easy.  We’ve gone through as bad a economic situation as we’ve had since the Great Depression.  And this recession was a culmination of a decade of irresponsibility -- a decade that felt like a sledgehammer hitting middle-class families.  For the better part of 10 years, people have faced stagnant incomes, skyrocketing health care costs, skyrocketing tuition costs, and declining economic security.  And this all came to a head in a massive financial crisis that sent our economy into a freefall and cost 8 million American jobs, including many in this community.

So it was in the middle of this crisis that my administration walked through the door, and we had to make some difficult decisions at a moment of maximum peril, to avoid a Great Depression, to make sure that we didn’t have a complete meltdown in our financial system.  It was a moment when the markets were in turmoil and we were losing 750,000 jobs every month. 

Some of the decisions we made weren’t popular at the time -- and some of them may still be unpopular today.  But we made those decisions because we had to stop that freefall.  And because we made those hard choices, our economy is in a different place today than it was just a year ago.

One of those decisions was to provide critical funding to promising, innovative businesses like Smith Electric Vehicles.  And because we did, there is a thriving enterprise here instead of an empty, darkened warehouse.  Because of the grant that went to this company, we can hear the sounds of machines humming and people doing their work, instead of just the ghostly silence of an emptied-out building and the memory of workers who were laid off a long time ago.

And we made that kind of decision all across America last year.  And we were guided by a simple idea:  Government doesn’t have all the answers.  Ultimately, government doesn’t create all the jobs.  Government can’t guarantee growth by itself.  But what government can do is lay the foundation for small businesses to expand and to thrive, for entrepreneurs to open up shop and test out new products, for workers to get the training that they need, and for families to achieve some measure of economic security.  And that role is especially important in tough economic times. 

And that’s why, when my administration began, we immediately cut taxes -- that’s right.  You wouldn’t know it from listening to folks, but we cut taxes for working families and for small business owners all across American to help them weather the storm.  Through our small business loans, and our focus on research and development, and our investment in high-tech, fast-growing sectors like clean energy, we’re helping to speed our recovery by harnessing the talent and the drive and the innovative spirit of the American people.  So our goal has never been to create another government program, our goal has been to spur growth in the private sector. 

For example, right here at Smith, you’ve recently passed a milestone -- hiring a 50th employee -- and I know you’re on the way to hire 50 more.  And we’re seeing similar things all across America, with incentives and investments that are creating wind turbines and solar panels.  We’re seeing investments in energy-efficient appliances and home-building materials, and in advanced battery technologies and clean energy vehicles. 

So just give you a couple examples, just last week, Abound Manufacturing in Colorado received backing for two plants to produce solar panels.  This is going to create 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs.  One of the plants is actually taking over what’s now an empty Chrysler supplier factory.  Another company, called Abengoa Solar, is now planning to build one of the world’s largest solar plants right here in the United States.  And when it’s finished, this facility will be the first large-scale solar plant in the United States that can actually store energy that it creates for later use -- even at night. 

All told, we expect energy investments alone to generate 700,000 jobs over the next few years.  And this is not just going to boost our economy in the short term; this is going to lay a platform for the future.  It’s going to create opportunities year after year after year, decade after decade after decade, as companies like Smith, that start small, begin to expand.  And I was just talking to your CEO, and he says he wants to open up 20 of these all across the country, so that in each region you’re able to service -- Smith is able to service its customers, and they’re going to have a reliable sense that Smith is always going to be there for them, making sure that customer satisfaction and performance is high.

I’ll give you another example.  Just a few years ago, America had the capacity to build only about 2 percent of the world’s advanced batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles like Smith’s -- 2 percent, that was it.  We account for 25 percent of the world’s economy and we were only making 2 percent of the world’s advanced batteries. 

But thanks to our new focus on clean energy and the work that’s taking place in plants like this one, we could have as much as 40 percent of the world’s market by 2015 -- five years.  That means jobs.  But that also means we’re going to have an expertise in a sector that’s just going to keep on growing all around the world for years to come.  So all these efforts taken together are making a difference. 

A year and a half ago, our economy was shrinking at 6 percent a year; now it’s growing.  The economy was bleeding jobs.  We’ve now created private sector jobs, added private sector jobs, for six consecutive months. 

Now, obviously the progress we’ve made isn’t nearly enough to undo all the damage that was done as a consequence of the economic crisis.  There are still five unemployed workers for every vacancy.  There’s still too many empty storefronts on Main Street all across America.  And I’ve said since I took office that my administration will not rest until every American who is able and ready and willing to work can find a job, and a job that pays a decent wage and has decent benefits to support a family. 

We’re not there yet.  We’ve got a long way to go.  But what is absolutely clear is we’re moving in the right direction.  We are headed in the right direction.  And that’s -- the surest way out of this storm is to go forward, not to go backwards.  There are some people who argue that we should abandon some of these efforts -- some people who make the political calculation that it’s better to just say no to everything than to lend a hand to clean up the mess that we’ve been in. 

But my answer to those who don’t have confidence in our future, who want to stop -- my answer is come right here to Kansas City.  Come see what’s going on at Smith Electric.  I think they’re going to be hard-pressed to tell you that you’re not better off than you would be if we hadn’t made the investments in this plant.

For the naysayers, they ought to travel all across America and meet the people that I’ve met at places like Navistar in Indiana, where folks are being hired to build new electric trucks; or Siemens Wind Power in Iowa, where they’re making wind turbines in a factory that used to be empty just like this one; or Celgard, which is a battery technology company in North Carolina that hired more than 50 people because of the investments we made; or Poet Biorefinery here in Missouri that’s putting people to work harvesting homegrown energy. 

While they’re at it, they ought to talk to all the small business owners who’ve gotten tax breaks to pay for their health plans and new SBA loans to expand or keep their doors open -- and that includes tens of millions of dollars in loans for companies right here in Kansas City. 

Or they ought to talk to the crews that are rebuilding all the highways and laying tracks for new rail lines -- including road projects that are putting hundreds of people to work in this area.  They ought to talk to the scientists who are toiling day and night to develop the technologies and the cures with the potential to improve our economy and our health and our well-being. 

And they might want to talk to the teachers who didn’t get laid off because of the budget help that we gave the state of Missouri -- who are then going to be teaching our kids and they’re being incentivized to reform how they do business so we’ve got the best education system in the world and we’ve got the highest number of folks who are going to community colleges or four-year colleges than anyplace in the world.

That’s how we’re going to take charge of our destiny.  That’s how we create jobs and create lasting growth.  That’s how we ensure that America doesn’t just limp along, maybe recover to where we were before, but instead that we’re prospering -- that this nation leads the industries of the future. 

I mean, this has been a difficult time for America right now:  two years of brutal recession, a decade of economic insecurity.  And there are going to be some hard days ahead.  That’s the truth.  It’s going to take a while for us to dig ourselves out of this hole.  But what you are proving here -- each and every one of you who work here at Smith Electric -- is the promise of a brighter future.  What you’re proving is that if we hold fast to that spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation that’s always defined America, we’re not just going to emerge from this period of turmoil, we’re going to emerge stronger than we were before.

You’re proving that as long as we keep on moving forward, nobody can stop us.  And for that I want to thank you.  You are setting a model for what we need to be doing all across the country. 

So congratulations.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)
                  
END
12:26 P.M. CDT

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From Sand to Solar

Secretary Steven Chu
Secretary Steven Chu
July 08, 2010
05:28 PM EST

Energy investors and entrepreneurs often refer to the period between technologies being developed in the lab and making their way to the marketplace as a "valley of death" due to the multitude of factors that can prevent those advancements from reaching the consumer. Today, just miles from the real Death Valley in Nevada, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and I announced a venture that will help promising solar technologies make that journey to the market. The Nevada Test site, which was once used to test nuclear weapons, will now be dedicated to testing new solar technologies that will help put America on a sustainable energy path.

Related Topics: Economy, Energy and Environment, Nevada

Smith Electric Just One Example of Innovation in Kansas City

Matt Rogers
July 08, 2010
03:02 PM EST
Read the Transcript  |  Download Video: mp4 (130MB) | mp3 (13MB)

Today, President Obama spoke with workers at Smith Electric’s new factory in Kansas City. Missouri. With a $32 million grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act coupled with $36 million in private capital, the electric vehicle company is building up to 500 all-electric trucks. 

While he was there, the President also had the pleasure of announcing the company was hiring its 50th worker at the plant. By September, that number is expected to grow to 70, and at the project’s peak, Smith tells us the project will create more than 220 direct and indirect jobs.  As the President said:

[T]he reason I’m here today is because, at this plant, you’re doing more than just building new vehicles.  You are helping to fight our way through a vicious recession and you are building the economy of America’s future.

The story of Smith’s factory shows the direct and measurable impact of the Recovery Act. Smith’s factory is re-purposing an 80,000 sq. ft. jet engine overhaul facility at the Kansas City International Airport, a space that was not being utilized or creating jobs is now a fully operational plant.

President Barack Obama Looks at Rechargeable Batteries at Smith Electric Vehicles in Kansas City

President Barack Obama talks with Dennis Hartman, center, CEO Bryan Hansel and Operations Manager Bob Lucas as they look at rechargeable batteries during a tour of Smith Electric Vehicles in Kansas City, Missouri, July 8, 2010. Smith Electric Vehicles is an all-electric, zero emissions commercial truck manufacturer that received a $32 million Recovery Act grant to build all-electric trucks. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

Related Topics: Economy, Energy and Environment, Kansas, Missouri

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
July 08, 2010

Remarks by the President on the Economy at Smith Electric Vehicles in Kansas City, Missouri

Smith Electric Vehicles
Kansas City, Missouri

12:13 P.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody.  Good to see you.  (Applause.)  You don’t need to do that.  It’s good to see you.  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  Thank you so much.  Everybody -- everybody have a seat. 

Usually they announce me with some fancy thing, and I think I messed up -- I just walked out here.  (Laughter.)  So I hope you didn’t mind.  But on the way out, if you want, we can play the Ruffles and Flourishes and all that.

I want to, before I start, acknowledge some people who have just done a wonderful job for this area, but also a wonderful job for the country.  First of all, one of the best governors that we’ve got in the United States of America, Governor Jay Nixon.  (Applause.)  One of my -- not just my favorite senators but one of my favorite people and a great friend of mine who is fighting every day for the people of Missouri, Senator Claire McCaskill.  (Applause.) 

We’ve got two outstanding members of Congress, one from this side and one from that side -- Congressman Emanuel Cleaver -- (applause) -- and Congressman Dennis Moore.  (Applause.) 

And finally, I just want to acknowledge all the wonderful people at Smith Electric Vehicles and their energetic and outstanding staff. 

It is outstanding to be here, and I’m not going to take a long time.  I just want to spend some time shaking hands and thanking you for the great work that you’ve done.  I just had a chance to get a tour and saw some of the battery-powered trucks that you’re manufacturing.  I had a chance to talk to some of the folks who build them.  But the reason I’m here today is because, at this plant, you’re doing more than just building new vehicles.  You are helping to fight our way through a vicious recession and you are building the economy of America’s future.

Now, it’s not easy.  We’ve gone through as bad a economic situation as we’ve had since the Great Depression.  And this recession was a culmination of a decade of irresponsibility -- a decade that felt like a sledgehammer hitting middle-class families.  For the better part of 10 years, people have faced stagnant incomes, skyrocketing health care costs, skyrocketing tuition costs, and declining economic security.  And this all came to a head in a massive financial crisis that sent our economy into a freefall and cost 8 million American jobs, including many in this community.

So it was in the middle of this crisis that my administration walked through the door, and we had to make some difficult decisions at a moment of maximum peril, to avoid a Great Depression, to make sure that we didn’t have a complete meltdown in our financial system.  It was a moment when the markets were in turmoil and we were losing 750,000 jobs every month. 

Some of the decisions we made weren’t popular at the time -- and some of them may still be unpopular today.  But we made those decisions because we had to stop that freefall.  And because we made those hard choices, our economy is in a different place today than it was just a year ago.

One of those decisions was to provide critical funding to promising, innovative businesses like Smith Electric Vehicles.  And because we did, there is a thriving enterprise here instead of an empty, darkened warehouse.  Because of the grant that went to this company, we can hear the sounds of machines humming and people doing their work, instead of just the ghostly silence of an emptied-out building and the memory of workers who were laid off a long time ago.

And we made that kind of decision all across America last year.  And we were guided by a simple idea:  Government doesn’t have all the answers.  Ultimately, government doesn’t create all the jobs.  Government can’t guarantee growth by itself.  But what government can do is lay the foundation for small businesses to expand and to thrive, for entrepreneurs to open up shop and test out new products, for workers to get the training that they need, and for families to achieve some measure of economic security.  And that role is especially important in tough economic times. 

And that’s why, when my administration began, we immediately cut taxes -- that’s right.  You wouldn’t know it from listening to folks, but we cut taxes for working families and for small business owners all across American to help them weather the storm.  Through our small business loans, and our focus on research and development, and our investment in high-tech, fast-growing sectors like clean energy, we’re helping to speed our recovery by harnessing the talent and the drive and the innovative spirit of the American people.  So our goal has never been to create another government program, our goal has been to spur growth in the private sector. 

For example, right here at Smith, you’ve recently passed a milestone -- hiring a 50th employee -- and I know you’re on the way to hire 50 more.  And we’re seeing similar things all across America, with incentives and investments that are creating wind turbines and solar panels.  We’re seeing investments in energy-efficient appliances and home-building materials, and in advanced battery technologies and clean energy vehicles. 

So just give you a couple examples, just last week, Abound Manufacturing in Colorado received backing for two plants to produce solar panels.  This is going to create 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs.  One of the plants is actually taking over what’s now an empty Chrysler supplier factory.  Another company, called Abengoa Solar, is now planning to build one of the world’s largest solar plants right here in the United States.  And when it’s finished, this facility will be the first large-scale solar plant in the United States that can actually store energy that it creates for later use -- even at night. 

All told, we expect energy investments alone to generate 700,000 jobs over the next few years.  And this is not just going to boost our economy in the short term; this is going to lay a platform for the future.  It’s going to create opportunities year after year after year, decade after decade after decade, as companies like Smith, that start small, begin to expand.  And I was just talking to your CEO, and he says he wants to open up 20 of these all across the country, so that in each region you’re able to service -- Smith is able to service its customers, and they’re going to have a reliable sense that Smith is always going to be there for them, making sure that customer satisfaction and performance is high.

I’ll give you another example.  Just a few years ago, America had the capacity to build only about 2 percent of the world’s advanced batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles like Smith’s -- 2 percent, that was it.  We account for 25 percent of the world’s economy and we were only making 2 percent of the world’s advanced batteries. 

But thanks to our new focus on clean energy and the work that’s taking place in plants like this one, we could have as much as 40 percent of the world’s market by 2015 -- five years.  That means jobs.  But that also means we’re going to have an expertise in a sector that’s just going to keep on growing all around the world for years to come.  So all these efforts taken together are making a difference. 

A year and a half ago, our economy was shrinking at 6 percent a year; now it’s growing.  The economy was bleeding jobs.  We’ve now created private sector jobs, added private sector jobs, for six consecutive months. 

Now, obviously the progress we’ve made isn’t nearly enough to undo all the damage that was done as a consequence of the economic crisis.  There are still five unemployed workers for every vacancy.  There’s still too many empty storefronts on Main Street all across America.  And I’ve said since I took office that my administration will not rest until every American who is able and ready and willing to work can find a job, and a job that pays a decent wage and has decent benefits to support a family. 

We’re not there yet.  We’ve got a long way to go.  But what is absolutely clear is we’re moving in the right direction.  We are headed in the right direction.  And that’s -- the surest way out of this storm is to go forward, not to go backwards.  There are some people who argue that we should abandon some of these efforts -- some people who make the political calculation that it’s better to just say no to everything than to lend a hand to clean up the mess that we’ve been in. 

But my answer to those who don’t have confidence in our future, who want to stop -- my answer is come right here to Kansas City.  Come see what’s going on at Smith Electric.  I think they’re going to be hard-pressed to tell you that you’re not better off than you would be if we hadn’t made the investments in this plant.

For the naysayers, they ought to travel all across America and meet the people that I’ve met at places like Navistar in Indiana, where folks are being hired to build new electric trucks; or Siemens Wind Power in Iowa, where they’re making wind turbines in a factory that used to be empty just like this one; or Celgard, which is a battery technology company in North Carolina that hired more than 50 people because of the investments we made; or Poet Biorefinery here in Missouri that’s putting people to work harvesting homegrown energy. 

While they’re at it, they ought to talk to all the small business owners who’ve gotten tax breaks to pay for their health plans and new SBA loans to expand or keep their doors open -- and that includes tens of millions of dollars in loans for companies right here in Kansas City. 

Or they ought to talk to the crews that are rebuilding all the highways and laying tracks for new rail lines -- including road projects that are putting hundreds of people to work in this area.  They ought to talk to the scientists who are toiling day and night to develop the technologies and the cures with the potential to improve our economy and our health and our well-being. 

And they might want to talk to the teachers who didn’t get laid off because of the budget help that we gave the state of Missouri -- who are then going to be teaching our kids and they’re being incentivized to reform how they do business so we’ve got the best education system in the world and we’ve got the highest number of folks who are going to community colleges or four-year colleges than anyplace in the world.

That’s how we’re going to take charge of our destiny.  That’s how we create jobs and create lasting growth.  That’s how we ensure that America doesn’t just limp along, maybe recover to where we were before, but instead that we’re prospering -- that this nation leads the industries of the future. 

I mean, this has been a difficult time for America right now:  two years of brutal recession, a decade of economic insecurity.  And there are going to be some hard days ahead.  That’s the truth.  It’s going to take a while for us to dig ourselves out of this hole.  But what you are proving here -- each and every one of you who work here at Smith Electric -- is the promise of a brighter future.  What you’re proving is that if we hold fast to that spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation that’s always defined America, we’re not just going to emerge from this period of turmoil, we’re going to emerge stronger than we were before.

You’re proving that as long as we keep on moving forward, nobody can stop us.  And for that I want to thank you.  You are setting a model for what we need to be doing all across the country. 

So congratulations.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)
                  
END
12:26 P.M. CDT

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Solar and Smart Grid: Powering a Clean Energy Future

Posted by Nancy Sutley on July 07, 2010 at 04:24 PM EST

Occasionally, I get the chance to see some of the work underway in communities across the country that will help to propel the United States toward a thriving clean-energy economy. Yesterday was one of those days in the clean tech hub of Silicon Valley, California, where I toured Nanosolar, Cisco Systems, and SunPower - companies on the forefront of solar and smart-grid technology.

See more about Energy and Environment  

The White House

Office of Media Affairs

For Immediate Release
July 07, 2010

CONFERENCE CALL: Administration Officials to Preview the President’s Upcoming Visit to Kansas City, Missouri

WASHINGTON- Today, at 1:00 p.m. EDT Jared Bernstein, Chief Economist to Vice President Biden, and Matt Rogers, Senior Advisor to Energy Secretary Chu will hold a conference call to preview the President’s upcoming visit to Kansas City, Missouri. 

In Kansas City on July 8, President Obama will visit Smith Electric Vehicles where he will tour the facilities and deliver remarks on the economy to workers.  Smith Electric Vehicles is an all-electric, zero emissions commercial truck manufacturer that received a $32 million Recovery Act grant to build all-electric trucks.  The award, which is part of the $2.4 billion in Recovery Act advanced battery and electric vehicle grants the President announced last August, is helping Smith Electric establish operations at a re-purposed jet engine overhaul facility at the Kansas City International Airport, the first of as many as 20 regional assembly plants Smith Electric plans to open in the U.S.

WHAT: Conference Call to Preview the President’s Upcoming Visit to Kansas City, Missouri

WHO: Jared Bernstein, Chief Economist to Vice President Biden, and Matt Rogers, Senior Advisor to Energy Secretary Chu

WHEN: TODAY, July 7, 1:00 p.m. EDT

DIAL-IN: Media that wish to join this call should dial (800) 398-9389  and ask to join the “White House Call.”

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OSTP Seeks Input For New Nanotech Strategic Plan

Posted by Heather Evans and Travis Earles on July 06, 2010 at 12:39 PM EST

Today, a Request for Information published in the Federal Register asks for input to assist the Federal government in the development of the 2010 Strategic Plan for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). The NNI is a U.S. Government research and development (R&D) program of 25 agencies working together toward the common vision of a future in which the ability to understand and control matter at the nanoscale leads to a revolution in technology and industry that benefits society. The combined, coordinated efforts of these agencies have accelerated discovery, development, and deployment of nanotechnology to help meet the grand challenges now facing the Nation and the world. Established in 2001, the NNI involves nanotechnology-related activities by the 25 member agencies, 15 of which have budgets for nanotechnology R&D for 2011. The proposed NNI budget for Fiscal Year 2011 is $1.76 billion, bringing the cumulative investment since the inception of the NNI in 2001 to nearly $14 billion.

For those not familiar with the field, nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at dimensions between approximately 1 and 100 nanometers. (A sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick; a single gold atom is about a third of a nanometer in diameter. ) At that scale, matter behaves in unique ways—exhibiting, for example, unusual biological, electrical or optical properties that enable a range of novel applications. Working at the nanoscale, scientists today are creating new tools, products, and technologies to develop, for example:

  • Clean, secure, affordable energy
  • Stronger, lighter, more durable materials
  • Low-cost solutions to providing clean drinking water
  • Medical devices and drugs to detect and treat diseases more effectively with fewer side effects
  • Lighting that uses a fraction of the energy used by conventional light sources
  • Sensors to detect harmful chemical or biological agents
  • Techniques to clean up hazardous chemicals in the environment

At the same time, the novel properties of nanoscale materials that are so attractive for some applications may pose novel risks. Thus it is important that research agendas appropriately address environmental, health, and safety concerns.

Agencies participating in the NNI are working collectively toward the following four goals, which are identified in the NNI 2007 Strategic Plan:

  • Goal 1: Advance a world-class nanotechnology research and development program.
  • Goal 2: Foster the transfer of new technologies into products for commercial and public benefit.
  • Goal 3: Develop and sustain educational resources, a skilled workforce, and the supporting infrastructure and tools to advance nanotechnology.
  • Goal 4: Support responsible development of nanotechnology.

The RFI published today refers to these goals as a starting point for questions covering themes such as research priorities, investment, coordination, partnerships, evaluation, and policy. OSTP welcomes your ideas and invites your help prioritizing important issues in order to improve the NNI 2010 Strategic Plan. Please submit your RFI responses to NNIStrategy@ostp.gov by 11:59 p.m. on August 15. Submissions prior to the July 13-14, 2010 “NNI Strategic Plan Stakeholder Workshop” may also inform dialogues at that event. Visit the workshop website to learn more details and to register to view the webcast.

Heather Evans is a AAAS Fellow and Policy Analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Travis Earles is Assistant Director for Nanotechnology at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

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Weekly Address: A Solar Recovery

Jesse Lee
Jesse Lee
July 03, 2010
06:00 AM EST

As part of the explosion of Recovery Act projects this summer and as a move towards a clean energy future, the President announces nearly $2 billion in conditional commitments to key solar companies. Learn more from the White House fact sheet.

Read the Transcript  |  Download Video: mp4 (143MB) | mp3 (5MB)
Related Topics: Economy, Energy and Environment

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
July 03, 2010

Mensaje Semanal: Presidente Obama anuncia casi $2,000 millones en nuevas inversiones para ayudar a construir una economía de energía limpia

WASHINGTON – En el mensaje de esta semana, el Presidente Barack Obama anunció que el Departamento de Energía otorgará a dos compañías de energía solar casi $2,000 millones en subvenciones condicionadas de la Ley para la Recuperación (Recovery Act). Abengoa Solar ha acordado construir en Arizona una de las plantas de energía solar más grandes del mundo, la cual creará unos 1,600 empleos de construcción con más de 70 por ciento de los productos y componentes de construcción fabricados en Estados Unidos. Cuando esté terminada, esta planta proporcionará suficiente energía para suministrar energía limpia a 70,000 viviendas. Y Abound Solar Manufacturing está construyendo dos nuevas plantas, una en Colorado y otra en Indiana. Estos proyectos crearán más de 2,000 puestos de construcción y, todos los años, más de 1,500 empleos permanentes cuando las plantas produzcan millones de paneles solares con tecnología de última generación.
 
El audio completo del mensaje está AQUÍ. Se puede ver el video por Internet en www.whitehouse.gov.

Declaraciones del Presidente Barack Obama
Sábado, 3 de julio, 2010
Mensaje semanal
Washington, DC
 
Esta semana, pasé unas horas en Racine, Wisconsin, hablando con la gente que está haciendo todo de su parte para lidiar de la mejor manera posible con los resultados de una recesión brutal.

Y mientras estaba allí, una joven me hizo una pregunta que oigo todo el tiempo: ¿Qué estamos haciendo como nación para recuperar los empleos en este país?

Bueno, el viernes, nos enteramos de que después de 22 meses consecutivos de perder empleos, nuestra economía viene generando empleos en el sector privado durante 6 meses consecutivos. Ésa es una señal positiva. Pero la verdad es que la recesión de la cual estamos recuperándonos nos ha dejado en un hoyo de 8 millones de empleos de profundidad. Y como dije desde el día que asumí la presidencia, va a tomar meses, incluso años, salir de ese hoyo, y vamos a necesitar todas las manos disponibles.
 
En el corto plazo, vamos a luchar para acelerar esta recuperación y mantener el crecimiento de la economía por todos los medios. Eso significa extender el seguro por desempleo a los trabajadores que perdieron su trabajo. Eso significa que las pequeñas empresas obtengan los préstamos que necesitan para mantener abiertas sus puertas y contratar nuevos trabajadores. Y significa enviar asistencia a los estados para que no tengan que despedir a miles de maestros, bomberos y policías.
 
De todos modos, en momentos en que millones de estadounidenses sienten un profundo sentido de urgencia en su propia vida, los líderes republicanos de Washington simplemente no lo entienden. Mientras una mayoría de senadores apoya tomar estas medidas para ayudar al pueblo estadounidense, algunos siguen recurriendo a las viejas tretas de Washington y usando su influencia para detener esta medida de ayuda, una maniobra que termina afectando nuestra recuperación. No tiene sentido.

Pero les prometí a esas personas en Wisconsin –y se lo prometo a todos ustedes– que no vamos a dar un paso atrás. Vamos a seguir luchando para que nuestra recuperación continúe. Y vamos a seguir compitiendo enérgicamente para asegurarnos de que los empleos e industrias del futuro se establezcan aquí en Estados Unidos.

Ésa es una de las razones por las que estamos acelerando la transición a una economía de energía limpia y aumentando al doble nuestro uso de fuentes renovables de energía como la solar y eólica, medidas que tienen el potencial de crear industrias enteramente nuevas y cientos de miles de empleos en Estados Unidos.

De hecho, estoy anunciando hoy que el Departamento de Energía ha otorgado casi $2,000 millones en subvenciones condicionales a dos compañías de energía solar.
 
La primera es Abengoa Solar, empresa que ha acordado construir una de las más grandes plantas del mundo aquí mismo en Estados Unidos. Después de años de ver que las compañías crecían y generaban empleos en el extranjero, es una excelente noticia que hayamos atraído a nuestras costas a una compañía que construya una planta y genere empleos aquí en Estados Unidos. A corto plazo, la construcción generará unos 1,600 empleos en Arizona. Asimismo, más de 70 por ciento de los productos y componentes usados en la construcción se fabricarán en Estados Unidos, lo que generará empleo y apoyará a comunidades en todos los estados que participen de la cadena de suministro. Una vez construida, será la primera planta de energía solar a gran escala en Estados Unidos que almacene la energía que genere, incluso de noche, para uso posterior. Y generará suficiente energía limpia y renovable para 70,000 viviendas.

La segunda compañía es Abound Solar Manufacturing, que fabricará paneles solares de avanzada en dos nuevas plantas, lo que generará 2,000 puestos de construcción y 1,500 empleos permanentes. Una planta en Colorado ya está en construcción, una planta en Indiana se construirá en lo que ahora es una planta vacía de Chrysler. Cuando esté en pleno funcionamiento, estas plantas producirán millones de paneles solares de última generación todos los años.

Éstas son sólo dos de muchas inversiones en energía limpia realizadas gracias a la Ley para la Recuperación. Ya he visto los resultados de estas inversiones. He visto fábricas antaño abandonadas, pululando con nuevos trabajadores que construían paneles solares y turbinas eólicas, poniéndose manos a la obra para ayudar a que Estados Unidos gane la carrera de la economía de energía limpia.

Así que eso es algo que estamos haciendo. Pero la verdad es que medidas como éstas no reemplazan todos los empleos que hemos perdido de la noche a la mañana. Sé que la gente está pasando dificultades. Sé que en este fin de semana del Cuatro de Julio muchos estadounidenses estarán deseando que las cosas fueran más fáciles. Yo también.
 
Pero lo que este fin de semana nos recuerda, más que nada, es que somos una nación que siempre ha estado a la altura de los retos que se le presentan. Somos una nación que hace 234 años declaró su independencia de uno de los más grandes imperios que el mundo jamás había conocido. Somos una nación que encontró un propósito común para superar juntos la Gran Depresión y el temor mismo. Somos una nación que aceptó el llamado a la grandeza y salvó al mundo de la tiranía. Eso es lo que somos, una nación que hace momentos de triunfo de los momentos difíciles, y sé que Estados Unidos trazará su destino una vez más.

Les deseo a todos los estadounidenses un feliz y seguro Cuatro de Julio. Y a todos nuestros soldados que prestan servicios en lugares peligrosos, quiero que sepan que tienen el apoyo de una nación agradecida y un Comandante en Jefe que se enorgullece de ustedes. Gracias, que Dios los bendiga y que Dios bendiga a Estados Unidos de Norteamérica.
 
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The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
July 03, 2010

Weekly Address: President Obama Touts Nearly $2 Billion in New Investments to Help Build a Clean Energy Economy

WASHINGTON – In this week’s address, President Barack Obama announced that the Department of Energy is awarding nearly $2 billion in conditional commitments from the Recovery Act to two solar companies. Abengoa Solar has agreed to build one of the largest solar plants in the world in Arizona, which will create about 1,600 construction jobs with over 70 percent of the construction components and products manufactured here in the USA.  When completed, this plant will provide enough clean energy to power 70,000 homes.  And, Abound Solar Manufacturing is building two new plants, one in Colorado and one in Indiana.  These projects will create more than 2,000 construction jobs, and over 1,500 permanent jobs as the plants produce millions of state of the art solar panels each year. 

The full audio of the address is HERE and a fact sheet HERE. The video can be viewed online at www.whitehouse.gov

 

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Weekly Address
Washington, DC

This week, I spent some time in Racine, Wisconsin, talking with folks who are doing their best to cope with the aftermath of a brutal recession.

And while I was there, a young woman asked me a question I hear all the time: “What are we doing as a nation to bring jobs back to this country?”

Well, on Friday, we learned that after 22 straight months of job loss, our economy has now created jobs in the private sector for 6 months in a row.  That’s a positive sign.  But the truth is, the recession from which we’re emerging has left us in a hole that’s about 8 million jobs deep.  And as I’ve said from the day I took office, it’s going to take months, even years, to dig our way out – and it’s going to require an all-hands-on-deck effort.

In the short term, we’re fighting to speed up this recovery and keep the economy growing by all means possible.  That means extending unemployment insurance for workers who lost their job.  That means getting small businesses the loans they need to keep their doors open and hire new workers.  And that means sending relief to states so they don’t have to lay off thousands of teachers and firefighters and police officers. 

Still, at a time when millions of Americans feel a deep sense of urgency in their own lives, Republican leaders in Washington just don’t get it.  While a majority of Senators support taking these steps to help the American people, some are playing the same old Washington games and using their power to hold this relief hostage – a move that only ends up holding back our recovery.  It doesn’t make sense.

But I promised those folks in Wisconsin – and I promise all of you – that we won’t back down.  We’re going to keep fighting to advance our recovery.  And we’re going to keep competing aggressively to make sure the jobs and industries of the future are taking root right here in America.

That’s one of the reasons why we’re accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy and doubling our use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power – steps that have the potential to create whole new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs in America.

In fact, today, I’m announcing that the Department of Energy is awarding nearly $2 billion in conditional commitments to two solar companies.

The first is Abengoa Solar, a company that has agreed to build one of the largest solar plants in the world right here in the United States.  After years of watching companies build things and create jobs overseas, it’s good news that we’ve attracted a company to our shores to build a plant and create jobs right here in America.  In the short term, construction will create approximately 1,600 jobs in Arizona.  What’s more, over 70 percent of the components and products used in construction will be manufactured in the USA, boosting jobs and communities in states up and down the supply chain.  Once completed, this plant will be the first large-scale solar plant in the U.S. to actually store the energy it generates for later use – even at night.  And it will generate enough clean, renewable energy to power 70,000 homes.

The second company is Abound Solar Manufacturing, which will manufacture advanced solar panels at two new plants, creating more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs.  A Colorado plant is already underway, and an Indiana plant will be built in what’s now an empty Chrysler factory.  When fully operational, these plants will produce millions of state-of-the-art solar panels each year.

These are just two of the many clean energy investments in the Recovery Act.  Already, I’ve seen the payoff from these investments.  I’ve seen once-shuttered factories humming with new workers who are building solar panels and wind turbines; rolling up their sleeves to help America win the race for the clean energy economy.

So that’s some of what we’re doing.  But the truth is, steps like these won’t replace all the jobs we’ve lost overnight.  I know folks are struggling.  I know this Fourth of July weekend finds many Americans wishing things were a bit easier right now.  I do too.

But what this weekend reminds us, more than any other, is that we are a nation that has always risen to the challenges before it. We are a nation that, 234 years ago, declared our independence from one of the greatest empires the world had ever known.  We are a nation that mustered a sense of common purpose to overcome Depression and fear itself.  We are a nation that embraced a call to greatness and saved the world from tyranny.  That is who we are – a nation that turns times of trial into times of triumph – and I know America will write our own destiny once more.

I wish every American a safe and happy Fourth of July.  And to all our troops serving in harm’s way, I want you to know you have the support of a grateful nation and a proud Commander-in-Chief.  Thank you, God Bless You, and God Bless the United States of America.