As House Democrats unveiled the details of their planned $825 billion stimulus package on Thursday, renewable energy advocates were watching closely. On the campaign trail, President-elect Barack Obama had promised to boost spending on alternative power and energy efficiency, not only to combat climate change but also to promote "green jobs" — like solar panel manufacture and weatherizing of buildings. With spiking unemployment, green jobs would have to be the solution for saving the Earth — and the economy.
Of that $825 billion, Democrats said, $54 billion would go toward renewable power production, improving energy efficiency and upgrading the country's antiquated electrical grid; that includes $20 billion dedicated to tax credits to the alternative energy industry, like solar and wind, which often still needs subsidies to compete with fossil fuels. "It's an intensely Darwinian environment for small-scale solar," says Arno Harris, the CEO of Recurrent Energy, a San Francisco solar project developer.
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