State of the Union Addresses of Barack Obama, 2009-2016Obama, Barack
General
State of the Union Addresses of Barack Obama, 2009-2016
Obama, Barack
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
We can also spur energy innovation with new incentives. The differences
in this Chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan
to fight climate change. But there's no reason why Congress shouldn't
at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for
innovation. So far, you haven't acted. Well, tonight I will. I'm
directing my administration to allow the development of clean energy on
enough public land to power 3 million homes. And I'm proud to announce
that the Department of Defense, working with us, the world's largest
consumer of energy, will make one of the largest commitments to clean
energy in history, with the Navy purchasing enough capacity to power a
quarter of a million homes a year.
Of course, the easiest way to save money is to waste less energy. So
here's a proposal: Help manufacturers eliminate energy waste in their
factories and give businesses incentives to upgrade their buildings.
Their energy bills will be a hundred billion dollars lower over the
next decade, and America will have less pollution, more manufacturing,
more jobs for construction workers who need them. Send me a bill that
creates these jobs.
Building this new energy future should be just one part of a broader
agenda to repair America's infrastructure. So much of America needs to
be rebuilt. We've got crumbling roads and bridges, a power grid that
wastes too much energy, an incomplete high-speed broadband network that
prevents a small-business owner in rural America from selling her
products all over the world.
During the Great Depression, America built the Hoover Dam and the
Golden Gate Bridge. After World War II, we connected our States with a
system of highways. Democratic and Republican administrations invested
in great projects that benefited everybody, from the workers who built
them to the businesses that still use them today.
In the next few weeks, I will sign an Executive order clearing away the
redtape that slows down too many construction projects. But you need to
fund these projects. Take the money we're no longer spending at war,
use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some
nation-building right here at home.
There's never been a better time to build, especially since the
construction industry was one of the hardest hit when the housing
bubble burst. Of course, construction workers weren't the only ones who
were hurt. So were millions of innocent Americans who've seen their
home values decline. And while Government can't fix the problem on its
own, responsible homeowners shouldn't have to sit and wait for the
housing market to hit bottom to get some relief.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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