Obama’s plan: clean energy will help drive a recovery

Even in this era of costly crisis and even more expensive rescue, US$50 billion is still a lot of money. That sum - perhaps even more - is what Congressional leaders and aides to President Barack Obama say he will propose to build new transit lines, weatherise buildings, manufacture clean next-generation vehicles, and create new “green collar” jobs.

Even more crucial than the scale of the spending on clean energy is what the President says it represents to his overall economic development strategy. Clean energy projects are a crucial piece of an estimated US$700 billion to US$1 trillion, two-year stimulus plan to put 3 million people back to work, and the first wave of public investment to transform how America powers itself. Remarkably, it now appears that Obama plans to launch his presidency with a daring idea: To anchor the American economy with energy sources not derived from fossil fuels.