Obama Proposes Building “500 Empire State Buildings”!
Earlier today, at D.C.’s Transwestern Building, President Obama and Former President Clinton formally introduced the “We Can’t Wait: Better Buildings Initiative.” This project seeks to improve energy efficiency in buildings. Clinton’s own Clinton Global Initiative has been active in this effort for several years already. Today’s big announcement involved plans to retro-fit federal buildings to increase savings on energy costs. It’s clearly an example of how the presidency can, on its own, without running the congressional gauntlet:
. . . today, I’m directing all federal agencies — all federal agencies — to make at least $2 billion worth of energy-efficiency upgrades over the next two years. None of these upgrades will require taxpayer money to get them going.
Kudos, Mr. President. It’s what he said next about the plans for private commercial energy efficiency upgrades that confused the crowd, or perhaps, just me. . .
I can understand two or three more, but 500? We now have 60 major companies, universities, labor unions, hospitals, cities and states, and they are stepping up with nearly $2 billion in financing to upgrade an additional 1.6 billion square feet of commercial industrial space by our target year of 2020. That’s more than 500 Empire State Buildings. [Italics added]
I agree with the idea of greater energy efficiency, and retrofitting is a labor-intensive project that will employ thousands. The anticipated financial savings on energy expenses justifies the upgrade costs. Yet, to me, building another “500 Empire State Buildings” makes little sense, and would certainly insult New Yorkers, and endanger their 2012 votes.
If I were President, I’d stick to retrofitting existing buildings. Perhaps it’s a Gingrich idea . . .
I agree, keep what we've got, just make them better~