Barack Obama's immediate focus will be to confront sharply increasing unemployment that has soared to a 14-year high of 10 million jobs across a broad spectrum of the economy.

At his first news conference Friday, the president-elect discussed the need for extending jobless benefits, reviewing the bailout program to aim government aid to sectors that will provide stimulus and helping states and counties weather tough times.

Obama only briefly touched on long-term initiatives. One of them - a new alternative energy economy - should be of great interest to Hawaii's leaders.

From early in his campaign, Obama has pointed to the folly of grounding the nation's economy on consumerism. “;The engine of economic growth for the past 20 years is not going to be there for the next 20. That was consumer spending,”; he said. Instead, “;there is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy.”;

He envisions an “;Apollo project”; that will intensify development of non-fossil-fuel energy, enlisting the best minds and coordinating research to speed achievement.

A new energy economy will produce fresh employment in manufacturing, a segment that has shed workers proliferately, and in construction, turning blue-collar positions green. It will stimulate investment in a high-tech evolution that also will lead to environmental gains.

A wealth of renewable resources should place Hawaii in the center of new energy research and development, but without enterprising and creative leadership, the opportunity will pass us by.

Gov. Linda Lingle and Hawaii's congressional delegation would serve the islands well by offering the state as a laboratory. The local economy, precariously based on tourism, as well as the nation's would reap great rewards.