Obama asks to fix electric grid

President Obama on Saturday revealed more details about his economic recovery package, stating that the $825 billion program will in part go to fund a new electricity grid to route power from alternative energy sources such as wind and solar to American homes and businesses.

Mr. Obama, in his weekly radio and video address, promised to “lay down more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines to convey this new energy from coast to coast.”

He also disclosed that 10,000 schools will be modernized with “state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries, and labs,” benefiting about 5 million students, and said that making 75 percent of federal buildings more energy efficient will save taxpayers $2 billion annually.

And, he said, a new website, recovery.gov, will track all of the government spending under the massive program, as part of an effort to identify and eliminate wasteful uses of taxpayer money.

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His plan, Mr. Obama said, “recognizes both the paradox and the promise of this moment: the fact that there are millions of Americans trying to find work even as, all around the country, there’s so much work to be done.”

Mr. Obama, during his first three full days in office this week, focused much of his attention on the economy Friday, after taking a number of steps in his first two days to overturn a number of key policies from the Bush administration.

The president has instituted a daily economic briefing led by Larry Summers, head of the White House national economic council, that will function similarly to the national security briefing that President Bush made into a daily occurrence after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Mr. Obama met with congressional leaders from both parties at the White House Friday morning, in which he heard out Republican concerns over spending too much money and spending it wastefully.

Having already bashed the Bush administration for not opening the process of spending the first half of TARP funds, Mr. Obama announced that a new website will track the spending of his stimulus package.

Recovery.gov simply tells volunteers to “check back” after Mr. Obama’s stimulus plan is passed, “to see how and where your taxpayer dollars are spent.”

Mr. Obama called the website one of several “unprecedented measures that will allow the American people to hold my administration accountable for these results.”