Our reliance on dirty energy is fueling global warming,
harming our health, threatening our security and stalling our economy. Burning
coal, oil and gas for energy and transportation is responsible for 80 percent
of U.S. global
warming pollution and most of our smog and soot pollution.
We can protect our environment and strengthen our economy by
investing in clean energy and green infrastructure. A green economic recovery
plan would mean less global warming pollution, fewer asthma attacks from air
pollution, more clean lakes and rivers for drinking water, swimming and
fishing, more secure energy in the long term, and more jobs than investing in
the dirty energy technologies of the past.
President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to make clean
energy and green infrastructure a cornerstone of America’s
economic recovery. In his first radio address of 2009, the president-elect said
"to put people back to work today and reduce our dependence on foreign oil
tomorrow, we will double renewable energy production and renovate public buildings
to make them more energy efficient.”
This report provides specific recommendations in support of
the president-elect’s efforts to ensure a green economic recovery and estimates
the environmental benefits of those recommendations. These proposals, when fully implemented over
the next decade, would reduce annual global warming pollution by nearly 10
percent below current levels and reduce oil consumption equivalent to taking
one million cars off the road each year. These proposals would begin to transition
America to a
clean energy economy and put more than three million people to work quickly in
ready-to-go projects. This is nearly as many jobs as Obama has called for creating
with the entire stimulus package.
The following measures represent initiatives that will have
the most significant impact in
promoting cleaner energy and creating quality jobs:
RENEWABLE ENERGY
• Ensure effective incentives for clean, renewable energy
• Expand the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds
• Fund the Green Jobs Act
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
• Fund energy efficiency and conservation block grants
• Expand the home weatherization program
• Create a home and commercial building retrofit program
CLEANER TRANSPORTATION
• Fully fund New Starts transit capital projects
• Transit modernization and rehabilitation
• Increase transit operations and energy assistance grants
These and other recommended clean energy and green
infrastructure initiatives totaling
$142 billion dollars in federal investment would have
significant environmental and economic impacts:
• Reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 670 million tons
per year when fully implemented over the next decade, which represents a
reduction of nearly 10 percent of
America’s
current annual global warming pollution.1 This represents a significant step towards
reducing the nation’s global warming pollution to what scientists say is necessary
to avert the worst impacts of global warming.
• Replace the power equivalent of 170 coal-fired power
plants with renewable energy and energy efficiency. Our proposals to extend the renewable energy
Production Tax Credit and invest in renewable energy on federal property, among
others, would reduce significant global warming pollution and create hundreds
of thousands of new, clean energy jobs.
• Reduce oil consumption by more than 25 million barrels
annually by meeting growing demand for mass transit and cleaner alternatives to
driving. This would be equivalent to taking nearly one million cars off the
road each year. These benefits would increase substantially over time as our
transportation system becomes more and more efficient, rather than more
polluting and congested.
In crafting a green economic recovery package, our leaders
have an unprecedented opportunity on three fronts:
• Putting the nation on a path to avert a global warming
crisis;
• Providing a massive stimulus to the economy and putting
millions of workers to work in quality jobs;
• Invigorating America
as we lead the world to a clean energy future.
An economic recovery package with smart clean energy and
green infrastructure investments can put America
on course to save our environment by rebuilding our economy through creating
quality jobs and developing new industries and technologies.
This report provides a comprehensive set of recommendations
on how to best accomplish a green recovery based on research and analysis from
throughout the environmental community, to include public, private and
non-profit entities. Environmental, employment and fiscal impacts are assessed
within each proposal based on previously conducted studies, in addition to
primary and secondary research.
