Earth Equity News

Stimulus Funds for Clean Energy Largely Unspent. By Mark Clayton, CSMonitor, February 18, 2010. "Making a 'tremendous down payment on the clean energy transformation' of the United States was a top priority of the Obama administration's economic stimulus package -- but, despite some notable accomplishments, it remains mostly a promise at this point. Most of the funds from the stimulus still haven't been spent, and the clean-energy down payment is a long way from being completed. Its impact so far on those jobs has only been lightly felt in pockets across the nation, economists and others watching its impact in their regions say. 'It's fair to say the stimulus is a down payment, but I wouldn't call it a tremendous down payment at this point,' says Joan Fitzgerald, an expert on economic development at Northeastern University in Boston, who has analyzed the stimulus's impact on the wind-power and other clean-technology industries. Overall, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or stimulus bill, has seen $263 billion spent of the $787 billion available by the end of last year. As a result, the US economy is now employing about 1.5 million to 2 million more workers, the President's Council of Economic Advisors recently reported -- and other independent economists agree."