Remarks by the President on Clean Energy Jobs

11:43 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning, everybody.  It is great to be here at OPOWER.  And just looking around, this looks like a fun place to work.  (Laughter.)  The work you do here, as we just heard, is making homes more energy efficient, it’s saving people money, it’s generating jobs and it’s putting America on the path to a clean energy future.  And I understand last year that you doubled your workforce thanks to Bonnie — (applause) — you’re hoping to hire another hundred workers this year.  And so this is a model of what we want to be seeing all across the country.  Our goal for the economy is to show similar job growth in the months ahead.

This morning we learned that in February our economy lost an additional 36,000 jobs.  Now, this is actually better than expected, considering the severe storms all along the East Coast are estimated to have had a depressing effect on the numbers.  And it shows that the measures that we’re taking to turn our economy around are having some impact.  But even though it’s better than expected, it’s more than we should tolerate.

Far too many Americans remain out of work.  Far too many families are still struggling in these difficult economic times.  And that’s why I’m not going to rest, and my administration is not going to rest, in our efforts to help people who are looking to find a job; to help business owners who want to expand feel comfortable hiring again.  And we’re not going to rest until our economy is working again for the middle class, and for all Americans.

And that’s why my immediate priority is not only providing relief to people who are out of work, but also to help the private sector create jobs and put America back to work.  Earlier this week, after breaking through a political logjam that some of you probably saw if you were watching TV, Congress passed and I signed into law a bill that extends unemployment insurance to help people who’ve been laid off get through these hard times.  It also extended COBRA so that folks who’ve lost their jobs don’t lose their health insurance, and it extended financing for small businesses, and makes it possible for 2,000 furloughed transportation workers to go back to work.

So signing this bill and getting relief out the door swiftly is absolutely essential.  But it’s only a temporary step.  The relief I signed into law will last about a month.  And that’s why I’m calling [on] Congress to extend this relief through the end of the year