By Christina Gongaware, Contributing Writer

President Obama spoke with a tone of both urgency and optimism as he addressed a crowd of over 2,500 on the campus of Pennsylvania State University. His 15 minute address emphasized energy innovation and keeping America’s competitive edge.

The speech focused mainly on building efficiency, which Obama called the easiest solution to overcoming the recession and creating more jobs for Americans. He pointed out that businesses and homes represent 40 percent of current energy consumption. Although he said that “building efficiency doesn’t sound sexy,” he said that his “Better Buildings Initiative,” which focuses on making businesses more energy efficient, could cut operating costs by $40 billion dollars a year and help to create more American jobs.

It is a part of Obama’s energy plan that is most likely to achieve bipartisan support. PoliticsPA will run down some GOP responses later this afternoon.

Obama called for an end in subsidies for oil companies and a five year freeze in domestic spending as ways to better support investments in new technologies. He said that the government should ensure that businesses had more money to spend, and applauded the December tax cuts as a success in achieving that goal.

“Show us your best ideas, and we’ll show you the money,” he said as he urged for the commercialization of research and the aid of CEO’s and others to join.

Obama’s speech attempted to motivate his young audience with the catchphrase, “Win the Future.” He urged students to be as confident of their work in the laboratory as they are of their college sports, and said, “I hope that you act with a sense of urgency, as if the fate of the country belongs to you, because it does.” He pointed to Penn State as “one of the places where the future will be won.”

Obama discussed the Philadelphia Energy Innovation Hub, a 1200-acre facility that will foster national energy independence and regional economic development which is being developed in part at Penn State. Its goal is to improve building energy efficiency by 50-80% through the development of high-performance building system solutions, and implement these systems in the marketplace within 10 years. Penn State is a lead partner and the facility is receiving $129 million from federal sources and $30 million from Pennsylvania over five years.