Jumpstart jobs by Greening gov buildings. Hybrid mail trucks

The surest way to spark the economy is to create a new industry for which there is a global demand. Countries that recognize this fact are investing billions of dollars in infrastructure to insure THEIR corporations will be lead the world in manufacturing & technology, leaving the rest of us to be their customers.

Some projects are just too big for private industry to do alone. Under the Clinton Administration, opening the Internet... a government project... to the public created an entire new industry that resulted in tens of millions of new jobs.

The next big technology wave will be "Green Technology". Low-cost, renewable, pollution-free energy and the products that use it, will be the industries of tomorrow. And we can either be the country that everyone else looks to for the latest technology breakthroughs, or one of the multitude of countries forced to pay whatever price the leading nations choose.

Two quick and easy (and economical) ways to create tens of thousands of new jobs that foster skills for the jobs of tomorrow, while simultaneously building infrastructure, saving money on energy and reducing greenhouse emissions:

First, retrofit thousands of Federal office buildings across the country to reduce their energy usage and emissions, creating not only construction jobs, but promote businesses that produce solar panels, insulation, building materials, insulated windows, etc (all the while saving future tax dollars spent on energy usage).

At the same time, contract thousands of hybrid postal delivery vehicles that only American automakers (who are struggling right now) can bid on. Not only will the vehicles use less gas and produce less emissions, it will help U.S. automakers put in the infrastructure needed to start building hybrid vehicles that can compete with imports and be sold around the world.

All of this can be done for less than the cost of bailing out one big Wall Street firm, with a FAR greater impact on the Main Street economy.

With record heatwaves, fires, floods and melting icecaps, the need to focus on Green energy is not only vital to the ecology, but to our future economy as well. Even those who refuse to believe in Global Warming would be fools to reject an opportunity to become a world leader in the next big global industry.