Obama says stimulus to include energy savings

By Tom Doggett and Ayesha Rascoe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said on Wednesday that his economic stimulus package will include investments designed to save billions of dollars in energy costs and create jobs quickly.

At his first press conference in 2009, Obama said "a lot of the investment" in the stimulus package would be in energy, health care and education, which he called "things that we need to be doing anyway."

Obama offered few details, but did pledge to upgrade all federal buildings so they will use less energy.

"If we do that effectively then over the long-term we are going to save billions of dollars in energy costs for the federal government and for taxpayers," Obama said.

Obama has pledged to invest $150 billion over 10 years to develop alternative energy sources, which he claims will create 5 million "green" energy jobs.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, this week urged Obama's transition team to include energy efficiency investments in the stimulus package.

The senators said they supported more money to help senior citizens and low-income families weatherize their homes with insulation and energy-saving windows and water heaters.

Obama has said he plans to weatherize 1 million homes annually.