RENEWABLOG

U.S. House Passes Economic Plan

The U.S. House passed an $819B economic recovery program on Wednesday. Dusting off the old high-school civics books, the bill is still a long way from becoming law. As White House press secretary Robert Gibbs noted, we're only in "the third inning." The bill will be introduced next week in the Senate, and members there will no-doubt make changes. If the Senate passes a bill that varies from the House's version, a conference committee will be necessary, and both bodies will have to vote again.

Still, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is confident the final bill will be on the President's desk by February 13. She told Larry King last week that the bill will be passed by Congress's President's Day recess, or "there won't be a President's Day recess."

Some notable parts of the House bill for the cleantech and greentech industries:

-- Roughly two-thirds of the bill ($594B) is new spending (the rest is tax cuts). The Congressional  Budget Office recently declared that 64-percent of the spending would be completed within 19 months.

-- Thirty billion dollars are appropriated for highway construction, plus tens of billions for other transportation projects, water projects, park renovations, military construction, local housing projects and other efforts.

-- Twenty billion dollars are appropriated for school renovations.

-- According to today's New York Times, there is some scrutiny that the appropriations for alternative energy projects will take too long to be spent and will not have an immediate effect on the economy.

Without question, lawmakers are very intent on stimulus ideas that will provide an immediate effect to the economy. The words "shovel-ready" (meaning projects that are ready to get moving right away) are very common.

Bibliography: Figures above taken from: "Following the Money," by David M. Herszenhorn; The New York Times; January 29, 2009; page A1.

Posted by Ross Levanto on January 29, 2009 at 8:29 AM