It's time for the government to take a new approach toward issues such as energy independence and broadband adoption, after recent years have shown that private efforts are not enough, said Eric Schmidt, Google's chairman and CEO, said during a speech in Washington, D.C.

The economic bailout plans now being debated in the U.S. Congress should focus on rewarding innovation and putting people to work by building broadband or energy-grid infrastructure, instead of propping up bad investments, said Schmidt, who has served as an economic adviser to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama.

"To address our economic problems and create jobs, we need to put innovation first," Schmidt said. Out-of-work contractors could be put to work building a smart energy grid or broadband infrastructure, he added.

Schmidt decried U.S. government policies of the last eight years, which in his eyes have relied on the private sector to fix many ills. It's time to look for new ways for government and private businesses to work with each other to address problems, he said. His ideas, however, will likely face opposition from lawmakers concerned with federal deficits; at one point Schmidt talked about US$10 billion just for tax incentives for alternative energy companies.

But the U.S. is facing a major crisis in energy, with dwindling oil supplies and global warming that could cause significant problems "in our lifetime," said Schmidt, speaking at an event sponsored by the New America Foundation, a think tank focused on broadband, wireless and other issues. "We're at the point where we've got to get this right," he said.