Barack Obama

“ Right now, all across this country, we’ve got contractors and construction workers who have never been more eager to get back on the job. A long term transportation bill would put them to work. And those are good jobs. We just released a report that shows nearly 90 percent of the construction, manufacturing and trade jobs created through investments in transportation projects are middle class jobs. Those are exactly the jobs we need right now, and they’ll make the economy stronger for everybody. ”

“ And we’ve got thousands of unemployed construction workers who’ve been looking for a job ever since the housing market collapsed.
But once again, we’re waiting on Congress. You see, in a matter of days, funding will stop for all sorts of transportation projects. Construction sites will go idle. Workers will have to go home. And our economy will take a hit. ”

“ But as I’ve been saying all week, even though America uses around 20 percent of the world’s oil, we only have around 2 percent of the world’s known oil reserves. So even if we drilled everywhere, we’d still be relying on other countries for oil. ”

“ We’re producing more biofuels. More fuel-efficient cars. More solar power. More wind power. This week, I was in Boulder City, Nevada, where they’ve got the largest solar plant of its kind anywhere in the country. ”

“ Under my Administration, we’re producing more oil than at any other time in the last eight years. We’ve quadrupled the number of operating oil rigs to a record high. And we’ve added enough oil and gas pipeline to circle the entire Earth and then some. ”