$100 Billion in the Economic Recovery Bill for Environment and Energy

The House passed an enormous $819 billion stimulus bill this week with only Democratic support – the number of votes they got from Republicans was a big fat zero (surprise, surprise). The Senate is expected to pass an even larger (roughly $888 billion) bipartisan bill soon, as well. In case you were wondering just how much of that massive economic recovery package is actually going to go toward the environment and energy, the Natural Resources Defense Council has broken it down.

From The Daily Green:

Environmental groups were fawning over the House bill, which Al Gore had personally lobbied for and which, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s tally, paves the way for:

$3.4 billion for states for clean energy projects
A grants program for renewable energy technologies covered by the renewable energy tax incentives
$6.2 billion for weatherization of low income homes
$3.5 billion for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (supports clean energy projects primarily at the city and county levels)
$2 billion for clean energy research & development
$6 billion for increasing energy efficiency in federal buildings
$12 billion for transit
$2 billion for ready-to-go drinking water infrastructure projects
$6 billion for ready-to-go sanitation infrastructure projects

The Sierra Club and NRDC are have praised the bill for “moving America to a clean energy economy” and creating jobs. Of course, not everything in the bill is green – and there are a few sour notes. The Senate is adding $4.6 billion for coal and $50 billion for nuclear energy.

It’s difficult to even comprehend how much money $888 billion really is. Hopefully it’ll work- a lot of people have their futures riding on its success.

Link [The Daily Green]

Photo credit: National Parks Service

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