Well, I guess if we took down ONE *VJ*, we had better stick to the alphabet and take down the NEXT *VJ*.
The Stimulus Green by the Numbers: Where the Money Will Go
And here’s what’s got everyone so excited: (from NRDC)
$6 billion for clean and safe water, creating more than 200,000 jobs
$4.5 billion for greening federal buildings
State energy grants, issued through the Treasury Department, that will fund renewable energy projects that are eligible for the available tax credits
Funding for the state energy program, which includes important utility reforms and building code conditions
$2.5 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy Research and Development
$5 billion for the Weatherization Assistance Program, creating approximately 90,000 jobs
A multi-year extension of the renewable production tax credit
A more effective tax credit for home efficiency upgrades
$6 billion in loan guarantees for renewables, transmission and leading edge biofuels
$2 billion for advanced batteries
$9.3 billion for intercity rail, including high-speed rail
$27.5 billion for highways (this large pot of money is not exclusively for highways, and states and cities must use this flexibility to invest in fuel-efficient public transportation)
$8.4 billion for transit
$1.5 billion in competitive grants for transportation investments (which could be used for public transportation)
Even some of the smaller numbers are encouraging: (from previous TreeHugger post)
* $125 million to restore trails and abandoned mines
* $146 million for trail maintenance at National Park Service sites
* $140 million for volcano monitoring systems
* $600 million for the Environmental Protection Agency Superfund environmental cleanup program
* $200 million to clean up leaking underground storage tanks
* $500 million for forest health and wildfire prevention
More Green News: Tax Credits for Wind Energy
More good newsa three year extension for tax credits for wind energy. Before the bill, wind energy advocates had to lobby every year to get the credits extended. Now, the tax credit is safe for at least three yearsan encouraging message to wind energy proprietors.
What Got Left Out
With perhaps the biggest investment in stimulating a green economy in history, it seems silly to make gripes like ‘it could have been better.’ But it could have been better. The $12 billion initially proposed for public transit fell to $8.4 billion, seemingly out of proportion to the $27.5 billion allocated to highway renovation.
Even though some unfortunate cuts were made through amendmentsno new public swimming pools, for examplesome fortunate ones were made as well: 50 billion dollar subsidies for nuclear power and clean coal were thankfully scrapped.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/green-stimulus-bill-60-billion.php
SOMEONE SAVE THIS before it disappears.