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Executive Summary
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
- Support transit modernization and
rehabilitation
- Increase authorized 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 fullyimplemented
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 reducesignificant
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.
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