Obama's green energy plans build hopes, skepticism

Not everyone cheered Obama's plan. Private companies could use domestic energy resources like oil and coal to create jobs without the hefty price tag for taxpayers, said Thomas Pyle of the Institute for Energy Research, in a statement.

"The road to economic recovery will be paved with private sector investment, not government-sponsored asphalt," he said.

(Reporting by Jasmin Melvin; additional reporting by Robert Gibbons and Joshua Schneyer in New York)