U.S. energy news: Smart grids, electric cars and Green investment
Fisker Sunset plug-in hybrid electric car (image source: wikimedia commons)
United States President Barack Obama announced a whopping $3.4 billion in grants for revamping and modernizing America’s energy infrastructure, including making power more efficient, reliable and accurately measured. Other Green news includes the announcement that a former GM plant will be reopened to make electric cars, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. $529 million in government-loan guarantees will facilitate the production of these new electric cars by electric car start-up Fisker Automotive. President Obama’s administration of aims to combine more sustainable energy practices with economic stimulus, in essence ‘Green jobs’ to effect economic recovery.
But there is a big gap between U.S. investment in new energy technology and that of China. American government and private investments total around $8 billion, while China’s is somewhere around $100 billion. If the kind of growth that we’ve seen in the last few years from China is any clue to how they’ll perform in increasingly sustainable markets and take advantage of new worldwide Green economic trends, $8 billion may not be enough for America to compete.
Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google Inc. joins msnbc’s Rachel Maddow to discuss these new developments in energy investment.
The Rachel Maddow Show – ‘Obama hopes to modernize U.S. power grid’
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
By Graham Land
Additional resources:
USA Today – Obama promotes new energy legislation as well as ’smart grid’
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Tags: America, China, electric cars, energy, Green, Obama, Rachel Maddow, US
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