Obama's agenda

The Obama-Biden comprehensive New Energy for America plan will:

• Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.
• Within 10 years save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined.
• Put 1 million Plug-In Hybrid cars -- cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon -- on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America.
• Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.
• Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.

A carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions might be preferable to cap-and-trade, but that's a quibble. Achieving the goal is what matters. I'll let economists and political scientists argue about the policies most likely to get us there.

And if you're worried that switching to renewable sources for electricity will cost jobs, consider this:

A group that promotes solar energy research says the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries provided more than 91,000 jobs - from janitors to engineers - in Colorado in 2007.

The American Solar Energy Society released a report Thursday that said "green" industries generated $10.3 billion in sales and accounted for more than 4 percent of the gross state product in 2007. (source)

The report was commissioned by Xcel Energy, among others. Lest you think that Xcel Energy is a small hippie company serving the Birkenstock crown in Boulder, you should know that Xcel Energy:

• Has more than 3 million electricity customers and nearly 2 million natural gas customers and
  
• Has regulated operations in 8 Western and Midwestern states, and revenue of more than $9 billion annually; and own more than 34,500 miles of natural gas pipelines.

According to their "About us" page, "The most recent National Renewable Energy Lab's ranking of green pricing programs ranked [Xcel Energy's] Windsource® and Renewable Energy Trust first in number of customers and fifth in energy sales out of over 500 U.S. utilities."

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On a related note, the new White House blog started operations at 12:01pm EST.