NPR (All Things Considered): Does Stimulus Package Keep Green Goals In Sight?

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100584448

Environment

Does Stimulus Package Keep Green Goals In Sight?

by Elizabeth Shogren

All Things Considered, February 13, 2009 · President Obama has said the stimulus package will move America toward a greener future. The package will pump billions of dollars into environmentally friendly programs, but it won't forge the major changes necessary to fight climate change and wean the U.S. from imported oil. And some provisions could make it harder to reach those goals.

The top priority of a stimulus package is to spend the money quickly to give the economy a jolt. That means pouring money into existing programs and approved projects, which ends up favoring the status quo.

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"I think it's very tragic. I understand the politics behind getting something out fast. But when we're thinking about something so critical for our future, something President Obama talked about — transformative technology for the future — this is not transformative technology," Ebinger says.

Ian Bowles, Massachusetts' energy and environment secretary, says that's too much to ask of a stimulus package. But he says the stimulus money can help push the country in the right direction.

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(Audio available at the link.)

[bananas]

1. This was the emergency stimulus package, the environment package comes later

We'll need the highway improvements for electric cars anyway, so I'm not really concerned about that.
The compromise bill has 4 times the amount for high speed rail as senate and house versions did.