U.S. Representative Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) said the new administration must invest in environmental and energy changes and should “get started in the next six months.”

In order to attain the necessary energy and environmental changes, Solis said it will take “political will,” and “leadership,” but emphasized it will not take a lot of money. She said that it will not be easy to convince Congress of the need for these big changes in environmental and energy policy, saying there are “not a lot of members in the House of Representatives, in my opinion, that grasp this concept.”

Solis advocated “greening our buildings, greening our infrastructure.” She felt this would increase jobs that would “stay here” and would allow for areas to “sustain communities.”

Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Van Jones said the economy is collapsing because the U.S. economic structure over the last 30 years was “not sustainable.” He felt that there are three inherent flaws in the U.S. economy: it has been “based on consumption, not production,” the U.S. can’t “run the economy forever based on debt,” and one cannot run an economy based on “environmental destruction, not environmental restoration.”

Jones claimed that energy change would not be as difficult as it seems because, “We have a Saudi Arabia of wind energy in this country, we have a Saudi Arabia of solar energy in this country.” He also said that energy investment “pays for itself” because it will lower overall energy cost, and will immensely increase available jobs. He claimed that if the government invested $100 billion, “we can have two million new jobs in two years.”

JayEtta Hecker, Director of physical infrastructure issues at the Government Accountability Office, says that the sale of US highways and bridges for periods of time to private enterprises brings necessary money to cash-strapped governments. However, when embarking upon these public-private partnerships, she warns that we must be wary of the resulting changes in toll prices for consumers (:35).

 

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Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) backs CARD Act at a press conference today with Senator Dodd. (0:32)

 

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Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) discusses credit card debt at CARD press conference. (0:37)

 

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Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, introduced legislation to improve credit card billing, marketing and disclosure regulations and practices today at a press conference. The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (C.A.R.D.), is set to strengthen industry regulation and supervision, prevent increases in interest rates and terms, and prohibit exorbitant and unnecessary rates and fees, among other things.

Upon becoming chairman, Dodd put credit card companies “on notice” in 2007 and with this legislation is hoping to create “fairness and transparency for consumers.” Last year 700 million credit cards were given out that allocated about $9,000 of debt per household, due to, as Dodd said,“mostly excessive fees and exorbitant interest rates.” (more…)

By Ellen Ratner

Twenty-four hour campaigning, 7,000 person rallies, political ads filling every TV and radio spot, political pundits spewing their latest guesstimates … overall, there is a lot of noise and promises, but no one is dealing with two of the biggest issues facing America – debt and health care crises. (more…)