Obama outlines low-carbon works plan

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President-elect Barack Obama last week laid out more details about his long-anticipated plan to “spark the creation of a clean-energy economy” and create three million new “green-collar jobs” in the US.

Obama has promised to invest $150bn (£101bn) in clean technologies over the next 10 years but precise details on the initiative have been thin on the ground, with his transition team giving little away as to how the funding will be invested.

But speaking last week, Obama signalled that at least some of the funding had now been earmarked, outlining plans to double US alternative energy capacity within three years, improve the energy efficiency of two million American homes and three quarters of federal buildings, and instigate a major rollout of ” smart grid” technologies.

“In the process, we will put Americans to work in new jobs that pay well and cannot be outsourced – jobs building solar panels and wind turbines; constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings; and developing the new energy technologies that will lead to even more jobs, more savings, and a cleaner, safer planet in the bargain,” he said.

Obama said the plan echoed Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” plan of public works but would go even further than the Depression-era scheme.

“It is not just another public works programme,” he said. “It’s a plan that recognises both the paradox and the promise of this moment – the fact that there are millions of Americans trying to find work, even as, all around the country, there is so much work to be done. That work begins with this plan – a plan I am confident will save or create at least three million jobs over the next few years.”