House Democrats Propose $825B stimulus bill, $74B in Energy Projects

House Democrats released an $825 billion economic stimulus plan yesterday that included $74 billion for energy projects, exceeding the expectations of most lawmakers and interest groups. The House package would provide $550 billion in direct investments and $275 billion in tax breaks, with a large percentage of those dollars going to energy projects and infrastructure construction and repair. Energy project funding would include:

• $32 billion for new "smart-grid" electric transmission systems and new vehicle battery technology
• $20 billion for tax breaks for electricity generated from renewable sources
• $16 billion for retrofitting public housing for energy efficiency

Another $31 billion would be used to make federal infrastructure more energy-efficient. Overall, that comes to about $20 billion more in energy provisions than what most lawmakers and interest groups said they were expecting in the legislation. Some House Democrats question whether smart-grid and vehicle battery technology should be included in the stimulus plan, considered that these projects are not "shovel-ready." But Jay Inslee (WA) said the stimulus should focus on jobs, not shovels. "When we hire a researcher to research lithium ion battery technology so it won't go to China, that's a job we have now," said Inslee.

The bill also includes about $1 billion for climate science at federal agencies, including $600 million for accelerating satellite development and at least $140 million for climate data modeling. A number of NGOs praised the bill's focus on energy projects, but some felt that it focused too much on new road construction rather than clean transportation investments. Trevor Hauser, a visiting fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, warned that the green measures in the stimulus do not reduce the need for an overall cap. His modeling showed that emissions would fall by 32 million tons per year on average between 2012 and 2020 as a result of the House bill, a 0.5 percent reduction in the United States. The Lieberman-Warner-Boxer bill that was considered on the Senate floor last year, on the other hand, would reduce emissions by 484 million tons during the same period, he said.