Video Length: 1 minute 30 seconds
June 17, 2010
GSA Administrator Martha Johnson joined businesses and workers on the energy-efficient solar roof of the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Regional Office and Insurance Center on June 17, announcing that this summer will be GSA’s most active Recovery Act season yet.
Construction projects are quadrupling nationwide, and workers across the country are installing solar power arrays at dozens of federal buildings.
This event marks the beginning of GSA’s Solar Summer; a significant ramping up of the agency's solar installation projects across the country that will put Americans back to work in long-lasting jobs in emerging green industries.
“Green jobs and green growth will be pillars of our future economic success,” said Johnson. “We are wasting no time in moving aggressively forward on the green and environmental front: To date, GSA has invested $4.1 billion in building modernization and construction projects, and by July, GSA will have put 545 companies to work on green building projects, more than double the number of a year ago.”
Over the summer GSA will put Americans back to work, building solar energy projects that will dramatically increase GSA’s solar power generation and significantly reduce the federal government’s energy consumption that will be equivalent to moving thousands of cars off of the roads.
Since last summer, GSA has quadrupled its number of active Recovery Act construction projects to 218, which has meant more jobs nationwide and significant investments in the vital infrastructure of our nation.
The state of Pennsylvania has been awarded more than $7.2 billion in total Recovery Act funding, helping to save or create more than 20,500 jobs.
“With projects like this one at the Veterans Affairs Center of Philadelphia, GSA is taking innovative steps to implement the latest in energy-efficient solar technology and create the energy solutions of tomorrow," Johnson added. "Here, thanks to an investment of more than $6 million in Recovery Act money, nearly 2,000 solar panels will produce more than half a million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy per year, reducing this building’s annual carbon footprint by nearly 400 metric tons.”
GSA is investing $5.5 billion under the Recovery Act to convert and build energy-efficient federal buildings, courthouses, and land ports of entry nationwide. These projects will deliver lasting progress toward modernizing the nation’s infrastructure, reducing the federal government’s consumption of energy and water, and increasing use of clean and renewable sources of energy.
See Martha Johnson’s Remarks>>
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