Lots to Plan for in the Stimulus?

16 February 2009 - 11:00am

If the list provided by Business Week is accurate, the Stimulus package includes many tens of billions of dollars for investments in sustainable energy and energy efficiency, infrastructure, rapid transit and the environment.

"ENERGY
• $30 billion for a smart power grid, advanced battery technology, and energy efficiency measures.

• $20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency over the next 10 years.

• A three-year extension of the production tax credit for electricity derived from wind (through 2012) and for electricity derived from biomass, geothermal, hydropower, landfill gas, waste-to-energy, and marine facilities (through 2013).

SCIENCE AND RESEARCH
• $1.6 billion for the Energy Dept.'s Office of Science, which funds research in such areas as climate science, biofuels, high-energy physics, nuclear physics, and fusion energy sciences—areas crucial to our energy future.

EDUCATION AND CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
• $53.6 billion for a State Fiscal Stabilization Fund—$40.6 billion to local school districts, which can be used for preventing cutbacks, preventing layoffs, school modernization, and other purposes; $5 billion as bonus grants for meeting key performance measures; and $8 billion for public safety and other services.

ROADS, BRIDGES, TRANSIT, WATER
• $29 billion for modernizing roads and bridges. States must obligate at least half of the funding within 120 days.

• $8.4 billion for investments in transit.

• $8 billion for investment in high-speed rail.

• $18 billion for clean water, flood control, and environmental restoration investments."

Source: Business Week, February 12, 2009
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Short of erasing existing political and jurisdictional boundaries, citizens and officials need to develop the capacity to work across boundaries according to the "problem-sheds" of the land and water issues we face in the 21st century.