The Low Down On Green Living
January 9th, 2009
Obama Stimulus Package Good News for Green Folk
Stumble it!
In case you missed it yesterday, President-Elect Obama laid out his economic stimulus package plans– and there was plenty of good news for us green folk. Green leaders around the country are applauding the plan. Quoted in Grist, League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski said, “This morning, President-elect Obama reaffirmed his commitment to invest in efficiency and clean energy technologies as part of his economic recovery package. [He is] ready to hit the ground running, he offered specific details that offer great hope for America’s future success.”
To read more laudatory comments from environmental leaders, visit Grist here.
To read the full text of the speech, click here.
In the speech Obama called for radically increasing the use of clean, renewable energy–both in government buildings and in private homes. He said, “To finally spark the creation of a clean energy economy, we will double the production of alternative energy in the next three years. We will modernize more than 75 percent of federal buildings and improve the energy efficiency of 2 million American homes, saving consumers and taxpayers billions on our energy bills.”
That is music to our ears. As my Low Impact Living co-founder, Jason Pelletier, wrote earlier this week, we now have an outstanding opportunity for the government to drive private and public adoption and use of renewable energy and other eco-smart technologies. And as President Obama seems to understand, driving that adoption is also an excellent way to create new jobs for Americans.
Now let’s all pray that he can get this plan signed and get the green train to leave the station!
You can see a draft of the full plan here.
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Comments
Canadian Traveler
January 11th, 2009 at 10:37 am
The Obama stimulus package is a fantastic move in the right direction for North America and the world. Perhaps the U.S. will develop itself as a world leader in clean energy. Perhaps Obama will keep the pressure on the auto manufactures to move into clean energy, moving us away from dependence on foreign oil.
Harriet
January 15th, 2009 at 5:30 am
I am listening closely to the word efficiency. It seems we probably have plenty of things already in the pipeline or well into everyday use that could be really “green” if the efficiency was just improved.
Just getting people to rethink the way we do things is something else that could be promoted as better for all.
Just something as simple as getting people out of the habit of letting their vehicles sit and idle in parking lots, going into the store rather than sitting in line of 10 cars for a hamburger and fries. It always amazes me how few people there will be inside a place while the drive through is packed. All for the ability not to get out and walk 100 feet. The stats about car idling are amazing is you consider how many vehicles are just idling away without going anywhere.
Getting people just to stop and rethink, that would be a great ad campaign.
HB
David Dzidzikashvili
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Obama’s stimulus plan should also envision changing regulations & economic policies to have short-term & long-term effects on unemployment, middle-class and the market stability. Strengthening the middle class and creating more job opportunities should be the primary objective of the package, rather than handing the blank check to the Wall Street and failed big corporations.
Patsy Bradley
January 28th, 2009 at 8:59 am
I am surprized and disappointed that President Obama has indicated that he will not review the present stimulus bill, eliminating those expenditures added which appear to be out of line with the overall purpose of this bill.
We all heard him say during his campaign, that he would go through and eliminate any unnecessary government spending.
Surely he must see the imporance to be true to his word on his first bill!
He was our hope for unifying leadership. Passing this democratic bill without any changes dashes our hope. (I am a moderate democrat.)
David Dzidzikashvili
January 30th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Obama administration needs to realize that in several months economic crisis and soaring deficit will be solely his administration’s and his party’s problem, so for any previous or future mistakes he’ll have to take the blame. Two-three months from now nobody will remember Bush’s policies and the Democrats have to be more careful on the long-term effects of massive spending. If the new stimulus fails, just like the past one, then this will balloon into Obama’s first political problem. We have to also realize, that on the long-term we won’t be able to afford more bailouts and there has to be alternative solutions, since we are passing the trillion Dollar deficit boundary. Printing more money can be utilized as short-term tool, but on the long run it will devastate economy. Something needs to be done immediately, but more regulation & spending does not seem to be a logical answer, we need another alternative solution. Maybe we should take pure libertarian approach and let the free market decide who wins or loses? This will cause social unrest and chaos, so as a society we can not afford this option either. Maybe we’ve killed the goose that laid eggs for us?
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