What the Stimulus Package Does for Renewable Energy
Some $70 billion in tax and spending provisions is set aside for energy-related programs
Updated on 3/9/09
With about $50 billion in spending and $20 billion in tax provisions, energy won big in the stimulus package.
Spending projects include $11 billion for the electrical grid, $2 billion for advanced battery technology, and $5 billion for home weatherization. Grants for energy programs also are major routes for cash, with $6.3 billion going to states and towns. An additional $300 million funds state and municipal purchases of electric and hybrid cars. (They appear in other parts of the package, too: The federal government will buy $300 million worth. There's also a 10 percent tax credit for those who convert their cars to electric power and a 50 percent credit to gas stations that install pumps for alternative fuel like ethanol.)
Science wins big. Some $8.8 billion goes to energy research. That includes $800 million for clean coal, $1.5 billion for industrial carbon capture, $800 million for biomass, and $400 million for geothermal energy. And $300 million of R&D funding goes to the military.
The package also supports green building. Federal buildings will get $4.5 billion in renovations; public housing, $4 billion. An additional $250 million is slotted to make affordable housing more energy efficient, in part by installing insulation.
On the tax side, it authorizes $1.6 billion in clean energy bonds on top of the current $800 million. Green energy manufacturers get a 30 percent investment tax credit, while another 30 percent credit is for homeowners who install energy-efficient technology like wood stoves.
Reader Comments
global crisis
we need to be focusing on global warming right now. Bush and the polluting industries have ruined us, and we need to fix it now. We can't wait for our kids to do it, like we have been for the past years, because then it will be too late. More is at stake than bankrupcy. We need people, who have the money, buy solar powered cars, and for industries to stop putting the dang CO2 in the air. The ice caps are melting, which means floods. The mid west won't be able to make crops soon, and have to go North, where it's cold and rocky, so there will be more hungry people than there are now. We aren't just at a financial crisis, and what will get into these people's heads to see how dangerous this is, and that we need to change fast! These people are blindfolded, and are not listening! The whole planet is at stake because of us. Are country is the main contributer to the crisis. A group of people can't fix this crisis, we all have to work together!
Smoke and Mirrors
Alternative Energy is about smoke and mirrors. Our economy is being plundered by embezzlers, politicians, and manipulators of all parties. Alternative energy is smart if it is cost-effective and actually reduces "total" pollution. Many alternative energy sources take more energy to make than it creates, just like the guy this last week who put up a $87,000 wind turbine to save up to $500 per month on his bill. He said he expects the taxpayers to pick up a majority of the cost in alt energy credits. We don't have an energy shortage, we have a leadership shortage. The US sits on over $40 TRILLION of recoverable petroleum and shale oil. Politicians have put it off limits so that they can control the agenda. It's all about power "political power that is". Secondly, "global warming" fears are a red-herring. It is an excuse for a one-party government to wrest control of the economy using "carbon" as the symbol. CO2 is not the problem, for if it was, the Earth's oceans would have boiled away when CO2 was 7000ppm 540 million years ago. Atmospheric CO2 is down to about 5% (385ppm) of what it once was, and was decreasing at a near linear rate over the past 170 million years. What if fearmongers get it dropped to about 150ppm. Do you realize that most PLANT LIFE ON EARTH DIES?! Consider that global agriculture production has increased 30+% just because of the increase of CO2 from 250 to 385ppm since the industrial revolution. If you don't know why, you must have skipped biology. IF mankind reverses the increase, agriculture will lose that 30+%. And if we lose that gain, there will be GLOBAL STARVATION. Do you hear ANY politicians touting that? Why not? Where is USN&WR on reporting the actual benefits of CO2, and that there is no nexus between CO2 and global temperatures over 540 million years of data. As for the economy, Bush and the free-spending Republicans only can take credit for 6 years of fiscal problems, the Democratic controlled Congress gets credit for the EXPONENTIAL fiscal disaster over the past 2+ years. Remember that Congress controls the budget.
It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes
"Fix the economy, Mr. President, and quit sidetracking us and yourself from the real problem that's killing the country." At least someone has a sense of humor. W. spent 8 years wrecking the economy. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that it could take that long to straighten it out again. Of course Obama may be so much more capable than W. (very likely) that he can put it back together again faster than that. At the end of his second term, we can see where we stand.
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