Obama White House releases Earth Day video

Wednesday was the first Earth Day of the Obama presidency, and the White House released a statement that the day carried "a special significance" in light of the President's goal "to create a clean energy economy that can serve as a pillar of our recovery."

The White House boasted that "green jobs" were a central focus of the Recovery Act, and said the president's proposed budget would also "help ensure that new industries around energy efficiency and renewables will become part of the backbone of the American economy for decades to come."

The President spoke about his goals with workers at Trinity Structural Towers in Iowa, a former Maytag plant which now houses a green manufacturing facility producing wind towers.

The administration also released a video featuring Van Jones, the White House Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the Council on Environmental Quality. The video message is below.