Recovery Deal Will Spur Clean Energy Economy
By Wesley Warren, Director of Programs for the NRDC
Congress really got it right with this economic recovery package that will deliver jobs and green infrastructure to America. The bill makes smart investments that will jumpstart the economy, help sustain future growth, and meet the challenges of the 21st century. We need to put America on a path to a clean-energy economy, and Congress has taken a big step forward in heeding this call.
The recovery package includes bold investments for renewable energy and efficiency, including weatherization programs that will save consumers billions while creating up to 90,000 jobs. Renewable energy grants will help struggling businesses cope with the economic climate and advance technology that harnesses the power of the wind and sun.
Repairing our nation’s outdated and corroded water and waste systems will create more than 200,000 jobs and improve the safety of our beaches, streams, and drinking water.
Transit investments put a down payment on transforming America’s transportation system, and create 19 percent more jobs than traditional highway spending. This is why America should prioritize fixing our crumbling roads and bridges and building rail systems, rather than new highways.
The economic recovery package reflects the commitment by Congress to fulfill President Obama’s vision for a clean energy future. It's a victory for the environment that will help pull our nation out of this economic slump.”
Here are funding levels and key changes in the conference report:
- $50 billion for loan guarantees for liquid coal and nuclear energy has been removed from the bill
The bill provides:
- $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)
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OV Social
I see here the loss of reality and point in a "wannabe" intellectual spewing of ideology!
Energy, Education, Health, Environment, etc.: these are its GOALS
Clean energy begins with cleaner energy from natural gas and fail-safe nuclear power (French or better system). It proceeds to solar, wind and stored energy (pumped water and ocean-hydrogen) systems. These will give us our own safe and unlimited energy resources. They will also provide well paid work for millions of people looking for a job.
Despite billions of dollars of government funding and climatologists warning of utter doomsday, "green" energy accounts for only 2% of the world energy. Why is this so? Is it because governments aren't taking the "initiative" or that oil and coal industries have a death grip on our country and are doing all they can in order to keep us from progressing away from infinite energy and thousands of new jobs? The short answer: no. Governments of the world, who should not be meddling in the affairs of private enterprises anyway, have--as aforementioned--spent billions of dollars in order to jump start the green energy industry. Let's look at some basic facts, shall we?
It takes thousands of wind turbines over several square miles of land to produce the same amount of energy as one coal plant occupying a much lower space--and that's if the wind mills are constantly turning, which is impossible in reality.
Solar power is the same story. For around 13 square miles of land and an insanely huge amount of start-up and maintenance money, we can have a solar power plant that outputs as much energy as a large coal plant under one condition: the sun shines BRIGHTLY every day for an extended period of time. In reality, only around a third, or at best two-fifths, of that energy can be attained.
So how can such an inefficient, impractical industry still be going? Certainly not because of the private sector. It is because the government continues to dump dollars by the million into them. It would be like me paying a man to run to the bank for me to make a withdrawal half of what I paid him to do it for. However, if some organization continues to give me that man's wage, I'll not be losing anything; whomsoever donated money to such an organization is losing. Applying this to our government and the issue at hand, the organization is the government. The dupes "donating" (via taxes, or stealing) their money are us, the taxpayers.
More than 80 percent of the entire world's energy comes from fossil fuels, and in America alone over half our energy is produced by coal-powered plants. Carbon-based energy sources are the lifeblood of this country. What kind of effect would we see if the government slowly replaced the coal industry with "clean" energy via laws and regulations? A loss of many more jobs than created by the solar and wind industries and a loss of over half our energy. Just because the energy would be "unlimited" doesn't mean it would be cheap, either. The cost of maintenance alone would drive energy costs up to a level beyond anything comprehensible today.
Spending its citizens' money on useless and impractical things such as "green" energy will further destroy our economy, not revive it. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks of global warming, because at the end of the day the efficiency and practicality of energy sources rules. Besides, if there were a viable alternative to fossil fuels, wouldn't the oil companies--those who have the money to invest in other ventures--already be developing them if it were profitable to do so?
Well paid work for millions of people looking for a job? The only jobs created by the government are jobs IN the government. It isn't the state that creates jobs, it's the industries producing goods and services useful to the state's people that create jobs.