Philadelphia (Platts)--27Feb2009

US Vice President Joe Biden on Friday said the $787-billion stimulus bill
passed by the Senate February 14 will bring "an unprecedented investment in
green energy."

Biden, speaking at The White House Task Force on Middle Class Families'
first official meeting in Philadelphia, said the stimulus will create tens of
thousands of green jobs.

He also said investment from the stimulus bill, The American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act, would create thousands of miles of new transmission lines.

Transmission lines that would bring electricity from the parts of the
Midwest where wind farms were being built to centers of population.

"At a time when good jobs and good wages are harder and harder to come
by -- it is critical we find new innovative work opportunities for middle
class families," Biden said in separate prepared remarks.

"That's why we're here today--to learn and listen about how investing in
green jobs can help build a strong middle class," he added.

The task force, Biden said Friday, will ensure that the benefits of the
stimulus package do not bypass the middle class. The middle class has been
left out of the investment of the past, he added.

The task force will hold a monthly series of town meetings across the US
over the next year, Biden said.

The first of those, at the Irvine Auditorium on the campus of the
University of Pennsylvania, saw Biden say that investing in green jobs means
that the middle class will earn 21st century wages and have lower energy costs
and a better environment.

The task force is seen as a vehicle to "find, highlight and implement
solutions to the economic challenges facing the American middle class."

It is supposed to work with federal agencies to expedite administrative
reforms, propose executive orders and develop legislative and policy proposals
that are seen as important to "working families."

Green jobs, the task force said in a report issued Friday, are generally
jobs that can't be "offshored.

"Economic recovery is about more than making sure that Wall Street
rebounds or the big banks survive; a true recovery means an economy that works
for middle class families. That's why the Obama-Biden plan to invest in
renewable energy and make our homes and businesses more efficient is so
critical. We can create millions of new jobs, save families money on their
energy bills and end our dangerous dependence on foreign oil," Energy
Secretary Steven Chu also said in prepared remarks.