Environment Key to Obama's New Roadmap to Recovery

Dubbed the Roadmap to Recovery, the plan focuses on 10 new major projects that will define the next three months of the Recovery Act. Three of those project areas are directly connected to environmental cleanup and protection.

The Department of the Interior will begin work on 107 national parks, the Department of Agriculture will start 200 new waste and water systems in rural areas, and the Environmental Protection Agency will begin or accelerate cleanup work at 20 Superfund sites from the National Priority List.

"We've laid a good foundation in the first 100 days of the Recovery Act and in the next 100 we plan to build on that foundation and accelerate our efforts so we can accomplish even more," said Vice President Biden. "We're going to get more dollars out the door, more shovels into the ground and more money into the pockets of workers and families who need it most."

As a result of this accelerated pace of activity, over 600,000 jobs are expected to be created or saved by the Recovery Act in the second 100 days – four times the number created or saved in the first 100 days.

"We have a long way to go on our road to recovery but we are going the right way," said President Barack Obama. "Our measure of progress is the progress the American people see in their own lives. And until that progress is steady and solid, we're going to keep moving forward. We will not grow complacent or rest. Surely and steadily, we will turn this economy around."

The projects being undertaken by the National Park Service - from Shenandoah to Hawaii Volcanoes, from Yellowstone and Yosemite to the Grand Canyon - include six basic types of activities: construction, deferred maintenance, energy efficient equipment installation, trail repair, remediation of abandoned mines, and road maintenance.

Grand Canyon National Park North Rim, Widforss Trail (Photo by Option8)

"We are moving full speed ahead to put Americans to work on vital projects at parks across the country," said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at the Cabinet meeting. "We are providing good jobs while preserving our national treasures and benefiting the 147 million people who visit these each year."

In addition to the work planned for individual parks, at multiple parks youth employment programs will be used to staff trail repair positions and collection of ecological data.

Energy audit retrofits will be performed on the 50 largest buildings in the National Park Service and 15 pieces of energy efficient heavy equipment will replace adming, inefficient units in 13 parks. In addition, older heating, cooling, water and electrical equipment will be replaced with energy efficient units in 80 parks nationwide.

The nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association says project funding provided in the economic stimulus law will create jobs and help to address crumbling national park infrastructure, but does not address the National Park Service's crippling $750 million annual operating deficit, which has contributed to the parks' backlog of maintenance and preservation needs, now exceeding $8 billion.

The association says this chronic federal funding shortfall has resulted in staff shortages and cutbacks in science and research, and public education programs.

"Development is a serious threat to national parks nationwide; one in three national parks suffers the effects of air pollution, and global climate change is risking natural and cultural treasures nationwide, from Joshua trees in Joshua Tree National Park in California, to the archaeological artifacts on the shore of Jamestown National Historic Site in Virginia," the association points out.

Maps detailing the activities planned in the second 100 days of the Recovery Act due to these 10 commitments can be found on WhiteHouse.gov/Recovery, a new webpage launched today that will allow the public to follow America's Recovery story and hear from people across the country whose lives are being influenced by the Recovery Act.

The new site provides snapshots of Recovery Act dollars at work, the latest Recovery news and opportunities for visitors to share their Recovery stories through comments, photos and videos, while Recovery.gov remains the site for tracking Recovery Act spending.

Announcing the Roadmap to Recovery, Vice President Biden told the Cabinet, that an additional 345,000 jobs were lost in the month of May. "That was far less than was expected, but it's still too many," he said. "That means that there are families who are still losing not only their jobs, but maybe losing their homes, finding themselves under extraordinary financial straits. And it's a reminder that we're still in the middle of a very deep recession that was years in the making, and it's going to take a considerable amount of time for us to pull out of."

But Biden said that was "the fewest number of jobs that we have lost in about eight months - so it was about half the number lost of just a few months ago."

"It's a sign that we're moving in the right direction," he said. "The key is for us to build on the modest progress that has been made in the months to come."

President Obama signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law on February 17, 2009 as the nation faced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Since it was enacted, the government estimates that more than 150,000 jobs have been created or saved by recovery spending and over $135 billion has been obligated to programs and projects that the Obama administration says will create jobs and lay the foundation for a secure economic future.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2009. All rights reserved.