White House Earth Day Announcements And Activities

The White House is gearing up for five days of events to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, and they're starting big. Vice President Joe Biden announced today a plan to invest $452 million in Recovery Act funding to go toward energy-efficient building retrofits in 25 communities.

"For forty years, Earth Day has focused on transforming the way we use energy and reducing our dependence on fossil fuel - but this year, because of the historic clean energy investments in the Recovery Act, we're poised to make greater strides than ever in building a nationwide clean energy economy," Biden said in a statement. "This investment in some of the most innovative energy-efficiency projects across the country will not only help homeowners and businesses make cost-cutting retrofit improvements, but also create jobs right here in America."

The 25 projects, which will begin in fall 2010, will also gain an estimated $2.8 billion from other sources over the next three years, which will go toward retrofitting hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in the U.S.

Here's a list of the cities that will be getting funds for retrofitting, with the final dollar amount subject to negotiation.

Austin, Texas - $10 million
Boulder County, Colorado - $25 million
Camden, New Jersey - $5 million
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning - $25 million
Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance, Ohio - $17 million
Greensboro, North Carolina - $5 million
Indianapolis, Indiana - $10 million
Kansas City, Missouri - $20 million
Los Angeles County, California - $30 million
Lowell, Massachusetts - $5 million
State of Maine - $30 million
State of Maryland - $20 million
State of Michigan - $30 million
State of Missouri - $5 million
Omaha, Nebraska - $10 million
State of New Hampshire - $10 million
New York State Research and Development Authority - $40 million
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - $25 million
Phoenix, Arizona - $25 million
Portland, Oregon - $20 million
San Antonio, Texas - $10 million
Seattle, Washington - $20 million
Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance - $20 million
Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, Ohio - $15 million
Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation - $20 million

For more information on the selected projects, visit here A map of the selected projects is available here.

Aside from government action, President Obama also made a request for citizens to take action on the local level-- you can visit the White House's Earth Day page to learn more on how to get involved.

Beyond that, the White House has a packed schedule of events and speeches across the U.S. to address environmental challenges facing the nation. Check back for updates on these events as they happen in the coming days.

Comments

[Gordon Soderberg]

11:38 PM on 04/25/2010

Veterans Green Jobs has be promoting these ideas long before Obama and Biden were elected. We are glad they are still listening to the troops on the ground. http://www.veteransgreenjobs.org

[janilsal]

01:10 AM on 04/25/2010

VP Biden seems to have the right ideas for Earth Day. He has been the biggest supporter of High Speed Rail. Can we get further reductions in the cost of solar panels for installation at our homes such that we can at least get hot water through out the year, thereby reducing heating costs? One step at a time.

All the best, VP Biden.

[chuck prebys]

10:41 PM on 04/24/2010

I spent the day today wandering the DC Mall, museums and the giant EPA tent setup with many colleges present showing what projects they are working on.

Good conversation with the students and profs and some interesting projects that people are working on.

Want to know what was glaringly ommitted though?
Any sort of Hemp biomass energy production or catalytically cracked water (Browns gas).

I try to remain optimistic for the future, especially when you can feel the energy the students and young idealists have.

But the old men at the top have very deftly prevented the most obvious and simple solutions from ever seeing the light of day.

Hydrogen.
Electricity.

The whole universe runs on those two things.

We ignore them at our peril.

[Harrier]

06:58 AM on 04/24/2010

I replaced 30 year refrigerator with a top rated one by Consumer Reports. Since I dislike Ice Makers and purchased one without it. I discovered it was more cost effective to forgo the Federal Rebate because there are no Federal rebates for ones with ice makers. Still, everyone is competing on prices and I was able to get a 40% savings on the top rated refrigerator. I estimate, I will break even in less than a year and will get one with more space inside.

I also purchased a Washing Machine. The Federal rebates are for only the absolutely most energy and water efficient machines. In California, where I live, saving water is important for the state. There are some great deals out there. Today, I will take delivery today of a front loading washer...With Rebates from both Federal, State and local I'm applying for and reduced sales price, I will purchase a $1,600 washer for $378 w/ taxes. That's less than the cost of new top loading washing machines. If you have a 5 year old washer, it's worth it to upgrade if you can get the rebates. The new front loading washers are very nice and because they use 80% less water. Clothes are washed in 1/2 the time and require only 10% drying time, if that. I traded my old washer with my neighbor's who had been laid off, his was on its last legs.

[Chopin]

11:12 AM on 04/23/2010

This administration is all sound and no fury ---
propped up no-nonsense Paul Volcker in economic sector, . . . then quiet, nothing, no followup.
propped up brilliant physicist Dr. Chu in energy sector, . . . then quiet, nothing, no followup.
propped up Elizabeth Warren in financial regulatory sector, . . . then quiet, nothing, no followup.
. . .
. . .

[giraf]

10:20 AM on 04/22/2010

Every day is earth day, and personally I think every day should be Mother’s day. And Earth day and Earth Mother’s day and Mother Earth’s day. Really! We have, like, ozone holes and vanishing rainforests and melting ice, and oil spills and mountain top removal and air pollution and now all that plastic in the oceans that kills everything from whales to birds to fish and eventually us, and all we have is ONE day! Only one day a year that is Earth day….

"One Day To Feel Good About Ourselves and the Environment Day" is what today should be called, so tomorrow we can go back to our old ways of buying bottled Evian, forgetting to bring cloth bags to the market, leaving the lights on, driving instead of taking our bike or walking.

But maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe its arrogant to assume that we, as just another, be it rather pernicious species, have to assume the position of “saving the planet” when its only us who’s making the mess in the first place. Its a bit like beating your wife and then helping her with the ice packs and band-aids. Take a look at the last tsunami, the earthquakes, the volcano just last week and its easy to see that we the people, are, after all, pretty powerless, and that Mother Earth may just have her own plans to save herself.

And I don’t think she calls it ”Human Species Day”.

http://itsamanmadeworld.wordpress.com/

[TimnySlagle]

09:53 AM on 04/22/2010

Great.

Celebrating Earth Day by printing off a couple more tons of money to give away to supporters.

This is actually anti-environmental, he's turning US currency into Trash.

[alvdh1]

12:54 PM on 04/22/2010

Great job with your comments. Please explain how this anti-environmental. Then elaborate on the external cost of pollution that is the result of wasting energy that everyone pays for through higher medical costs from breathing polluted air, drinking foul water and eating tainted food from the toxins released at power plants, drilling for oil and natural gas and mining uranium. When you are done with this you, can explain the trade deficit, that is largely due to the importation of energy, and how this impacts the everyday lives of ordinary Americans.

Please try and do it with facts as opposed to yor obvious hyperbole.

[Aquinnah1]

07:19 AM on 04/22/2010

Earth Day greetings from Pogo Possum: www.eightfits.blogspot.com

[StephenBP]

06:01 AM on 04/22/2010

Gee. Shouldn't the gummint be subsidizing Hummers like Bush did?

[iLoveOldNY]

12:49 AM on 04/22/2010

Save gas. Make sure you have health insurance.

http://www.gamaniak.com/embed.swf?file=http://embed.gamaniak.com/vid/descente-cote-buggy-rollin.mp4&image=http://d2.gamaniak.com/vid/tn/descente-cote-buggy-rollin.mp4.jpg&showdigits=true&controlbar=over&link=http://www.gamaniak.com/video-3625-descente-cot

[adamnb]

09:18 PM on 04/21/2010

"Take off your shoes. The ground you stand on is holy." (G_d to Moses)

[billshut]

06:36 PM on 04/21/2010

No offense, but I went to that link and found nothing specific in nature about what these retrofits actually entail. As is usual, I'll wager 60% goes to projects that have nothing to do with the mission statement of this program, are novelty-but-unproven-and-heaps-of-malfunctioning-garbage-in-ten-years or nothing that the free market wouldn't take care of on it's own.

[ElectronoftheOne]

03:45 PM on 04/22/2010

Or not.

[Tyler-Durden]

03:56 PM on 04/21/2010

imagine:

every building with POINT OF USE water heaters.
every bldg. with their own wind generator on the roof.
every bldg. with a few solar panels on the roof.
every bldg. with a couple cisterns for lawn irrigation.
every bldg. with LED and flourescent lighting only.
every bldg. with a roof painted white, or a "natural roof" covered with live greenery.
every bldg. with auto-off light switches

just THIS would make a huge reduction in our power demand.

THEN start pulling these coal plants off line as new SOLAR COLLECTION PLANTS start to fill the desert. cover the whole Mojave with them. ALL of the world's energy demand could be met EASILY.

oh, and DON'T say the solar technology doesn't exist. IT DOES.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/25/faiman_negev_solar_plan/

[billshut]

06:37 PM on 04/21/2010

Bro, I wouldn't want to live in one of those buildings or a neighborhood made up of them, thanks though.

[Tyler-Durden]

06:13 PM on 04/22/2010

why not?

you'd prefer that EVERY WATER HEATER IN THE COUNTRY keeps wasting energy to keep a tankful of water hot all day and night, so you can use hot water for about an hour a day?

you'd prefer to take a pass on generating a little of your own electricity with a little fan on the roof, and a couple panels? almost every bldg now has a satellite dish or some other crap.

you'd prefer to leave your roof black like tar, so it absorbs the sun's heat all day, rather than reflect it?

you'd prefer to stay within the stranglehold of big oil and coal for your energy needs?

well then you can move to MEXICO, and live however you'd like. the rest of us would like to start SAVING SOME MONEY instead of giving it all to energy conglomerates.

i feel sorry for ya, bro. i really do. not being sarcastic, just sad that you don't get it.

[SkiingGator]

05:28 AM on 04/22/2010

I like the way you think

[rougebaisers]

02:44 PM on 04/21/2010

Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning - $25 million??? Oh I can just imagine what they are planning.

[blueskybigstar]

02:26 PM on 04/21/2010

California should be getting some of the money for doing it themselves AND for the fact that we invested in wind power, which is ten percent of our electricity and helps fight the trade deficit making us more independent as a nation.

[CHICAGOSTYLE]

02:43 PM on 04/21/2010

and don't think the rest of the country has seen how Calif has bankrupted itself largely because of its ecoTerrorist policies and regulations

[horhay]

03:43 PM on 04/21/2010

...and we in California remember how Enron bilked us & began bankrupting us while they were cooking their books. How Grey Davis was thrown under the bus so that a Bush-friendly Repub, Gov Ahnold, could initiate neocon policies here. Schwarzenegger has been governor here for 2 terms, he is largely responsible for the financial condition of California.

[blueskybigstar]

03:19 PM on 04/22/2010

Prop 13, Enron, and Bush/Reagan policies have the most to do with it.

[steve11407]

04:32 PM on 04/21/2010

California is getting twice what Texas is getting. Texas has around twice as many wind turbines as does California. Texas is solvent. So what is your complaint with the US gov? Start weaning yourself from their teat.

[horhay]

08:01 PM on 04/21/2010

Will Texas wean itself from the oil corporations teat(s)? If, or when they do, then Texas will have something to show the rest of the nation how it's done. But it's not likely because petrol dollars are one of the main reasons Texas is solvent.

[blueskybigstar]

03:25 PM on 04/22/2010

We have the most people of any state in the country. Of course we got the most money! We put up our wind power before any one else, without the help of the Federal Government or private corporations. Texas brought us a president that bankrupted our nation, lied about the costs of war and the reasons to go there about a country that never attacked us where according to Lancet took the lives of a million people. Please, clean up your state. The oil rules you. We even lost a president there.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6119459.html
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/20/dick_cheney_and_alberto_gonzales_indicted
http://www.tomflocco.com/fs/FbiMemoPhotoLinkBushJfk.htm