Obama's Earth Day: Where Maytags once rolled off the line, towers for wind turbines are now made

Highlighting the priorities of renewable energy and sustainability, President Obama and his administration kicked off Earth Day at a wind-turbine power plant in Newton, Iowa. "The choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy -- it's a choice between prosperity and decline," Obama said.

Obama sees the plant, which employs 91 people and expects the creation of 100 more jobs in the next two years, "as a model of how the nation's manufacturing economy can be transformed to accommodate a renewable energy future," Michael A. Fletcher reports for The Washington Post. "While the plant is creating jobs, its scale pales" next to the old Maytag plant that once employed 1,800 in the same building, Fletcher notes.

Obama was accompanied by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, who announced $144.3 million in loans and grants for infrastructure improvements to improve water availability and quality. For the USDA release, click here. Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis contributed their own Earth Day thoughts in an op-ed piece. They wrote that a 'green' revolution will lay the foundation for sustainable change: "By providing the training that will turn 20th century blue-collar jobs into secure 21st century green-collar jobs, we are paving a pathway out of poverty; strengthening urban and rural communities; rebuilding a strong middle class; and protecting the health of our citizens and planet." Read more here and here.