‘Green’ energy plan in Obama stimulus may be losing steam

According to one observer, ‘the planning just has not been done.’

Barack Obama portrays his stimulus plan as a quick jolt for the ailing economy and a “down payment” on his priorities as president. But those goals appear to be colliding in at least one key area: energy independence.

The stimulus package increasingly appears unlikely to include major investments in “green infrastructure” — the wires and rails that could deliver renewable energy to Americans’ homes and help end the nation’s addiction to oil — according to alternative-energy advocates who are discussing the plans with the Obama transition team.


It’s a timing issue. The blueprints and, in many cases, the authority don’t exist to lay miles of high-speed rail lines or to build a sprawling web of power lines to create a truly national electric grid.

“Before you spend billions of dollars on new lines, you have to spend millions of dollars on design work,” said Michael Moynihan, the green project director of the liberal think tank NDN in Washington, who has worked extensively on green infrastructure and the stimulus. “Nobody had been thinking about this much money [becoming available]. So the planning just has not been done.”

LA Times