A Green New Deal?

President-Elect Barack Obama this week announced plans to launch largest public-works program in half a century, in the hope of creating millions of jobs and stimulating the sinking economy. While Obama would not put a price on his plan, Experts estimated that the plan would cost from $500 billion-$700 billion. Obama wants to save or create at least 2.5 million jobs. Thomas Friedman, writing in the New York Times, said the key decision of Obama's presidency will be whether to spend this money in a way that prepares America for the next century or whether it calcified transportation and housing patterns that have existed for decades. "If Mr. Obama is going to oversee a successful infrastructure stimulus, then it has to include not only a tax on carbon - make it revenue-neutral and rebate it all by reducing payroll taxes - but also new standards that gradually require utilities and home builders in states that receive money to build dramatically more energy- efficient power plants, commercial buildings and homes. This, too, would create whole new industries." Thomas Friedman's op-ed is available at New York Times.