Obama Announces $2 Billion To Strengthen Solar Capability, Add Jobs
July 3, 2010 at 6:44 AM by AHN ·
Washington, DC, United States (NewsBahn) – In his weekly Saturday address, President Barack Obama announced the awarding of nearly $2 billion in Recovery Act funds that will build solar power plants in three states and create more than 1,500 jobs.
He also used the occasion to push Congress to approve bills that would strengthen his job-creation strategy.
The federal funds will be split between two companies, Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing. Abengoa, which has offices in Spain and the United States, will build what the president termed “one of the largest solar plants in the world” in Arizona. Construction will generate about 1,600 job. Obama said more than 70 percent of the parts and products used to build the plant will be manufactured in the U.S.
It would be the first large-scale solar plant in the U.S. to actually store the energy it generates for later use – even at night. When completed, the plant is expected to produce enough electricity to power 70,000 homes.
Abound, which is based in Colorado, will build plants to make solar panels there and in Indiana. The projects are expected to create more than 2,000 construction jobs and at least 1,500 permanent jobs.
The President noted that “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.”
His optimism was tempered by the fact that “the recession from which we’re emerging has left us in a hole that’s about 8 million jobs deep.”
Rectifying that situation would take an “all-hands-on-deck effort,” he said. Saying that “Republican leaders in Washington just don’t get it,” Obama called on Congress to extend long-term jobless benefits, create loans for small businesses and “[send] relief to states so they don’t have to lay off thousands of teachers and firefighters and police officers.
On the eve of celebrating America’s independence, Obama noted the country’s ability to overcome hard times.
“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,” he said. “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.”
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