The US is not the only country looking to renewable energy as a way to boost its economy by providing opportunities for increased investment, building low carbon efficiency into the infrastructure and creating millions of jobs. Australia, The European Union, South Korea, China, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, France and the United Kingdom
Want to track where the stimulus is being used in your community? Check out StimulusWatch. StimulusWatch.org was built to help the new administration keep its pledge to invest stimulus money smartly, and to hold public officials to account for the taxpayer money they spend. The site accomplishes this by allowing you, citizens around the country with local knowledge about the proposed “shovel-ready” projects in your city, to find, discuss and rate those projects.
Over the past few months, numerous articles have popped up raising the alarm bell that the stimulus package, with its emphasis on green jobs and infrastructure will short-change women. I disagree. I see it as an opportunity for women to change the playing field. Additionally, I believe that these critics have overlooked the fact that stimulus funds have been allocated for education and healthcare – both fields dominated by women.
What is the green economy? It promises a future more harmonious with nature, more attuned to the kind of tomorrow that is lying ahead and it also projects a sense of hopefulness and prosperity. The green economy is a rapidly growing and increasingly important sector in the overall economy generating more than a trillion dollars in revenue and employing many millions of people. It embraces such diverse industries as renewable energy production and electric energy distribution, energy efficiency and storage, organic agriculture, green transportation and green building.
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) recently published an online map that identifies and profiles more than 1,200 companies in key manufacturing states that they see as poised create new jobs when Congress passes a cap on global warming pollution. The interactive map spotlights companies located in manufacturing regions, including those in communities in the rust belt and coal country.
Many believe that the green economy will be powered by the wind and by the sun. But fewer people are aware that to make this possible we need to profoundly transform the current electric grid to control and manage renewable energy supplies. Balancing load and demand is a quite a challenge with renewable supplies that are intermittent and depend on the weather. Without a robust ability to continuously balance energy supply and demand, wind or solar energy sources can have a profoundly negative impact on grid operations, reliability and power quality and force grid operators to make costly and inefficient adaptations to current spot conditions.
Tamara Giltsoff, managing director of OZOlab, called “The U.S. Stimulus Package: What’s Missing?”She feels that innovation got left out of the stimulus. She feels in does not address how to get to a sustainable economy nor does she feel that it addresses the unsustainable consumption that is ingrained in our way of doing business and our overall way of life. Her list of what she thinks should be done is summarized in this article.
The economic recovery package contains $78.6 billion in clean energy, energy efficiency, environmental and green transportation funding. There are also energy-related tax incentives. Prior to signing the bill, Obama spoke of how the United States can now convert crisis into opportunity, like making the country more energy efficient, and how he would like to see the nation’s amount of renewable energy doubled in the next three years.
President Barack Obama unveiled a new emblem last week that will be used on projects funded by the economic stimulus package. Projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will bear a newly-designed emblem. “We’re also making it easier for Americans to see what projects are being funded with their money as part of our recovery, said President Obama.
