A green view: Congress should enact a green economic recovery plan

[Towntalk]

Congressional leaders agreed yesterday on the details of a $790 billion stimulus package. The House is expected to vote on the plan today or tomorrow, and with Senate action quickly following, the legislation is set to arrive on President Obama's desk no later than Monday.

[irishbobcat]

As a school board member, I do read everything that is given to me prior to voting especially if we are talking financial matters.

I know what you mean about Congress. It's sickening to know that the chamber is empty and our Congress folks are pulling down 174,000 plus a year....

[Towntalk]

Dennis:

EH = Engrossed House = Final House Passage as in H.R. 1 EH

I've always found it helpful to also read the CBO report on the bill to see just how much its going to cost the tax payers.

I also wonder just how many Congressmen actually sit down and read the bills they're voting on personally. I seriously doubt that either Ryan or Wilson have taken the time to read either bill.

It's one thing to have their staff read the bills, but quite another for them to actually do their own homework.

With most Congressmen it's like a College student relying on cheat sheets just before a test and not wading into the text book and lecture notes themselves.

If they would spend more time doing their homework themselves and less time hobnobbing around in the halls of the House and Senate maby some of the legislation that is voted on would not be passed.

It really is frustrating to watch the debates on C-SPAN and see the chambers 3/4 empty when important legislation is up for debate and vote, or see Congressmen talking to each other ignoring what is being said.

[irishbobcat]

Towntalk:

No, I usually don't read the bills until they are final.....unless i hear updates on the news or updates via e-mail........


Dennis Spisak

[Towntalk]

Word has it that the two versions (House and Senate) will go to conference by Thursday, and hopefully it can go back to both houses for final vote next week.

As far as I know, there isn't much concern about the environmental provisions in either version, and since the President wants them left in, its safe to say that they'll be there when the bill reaches his desk.

Question for Dennis: Just how much of the two bills have you actually read - H.R.1 and S. 350?

[irishbobcat]

A green view: Congress should enact a green economic recovery plan
   Feb 8, 2009   Duluth News Tribune   
   A green view: Congress should enact a green economic recovery plan The economic slump we find ourselves in presents us with enormous challenges. It also presents us with the opportunity of a generation. By: Paul Helstrom and Samantha Chadwick The economic slump we find ourselves in presents us with enormous challenges. It also presents us with the opportunity of a generation. To revive the American dream, we need to rebuild our economy on a sound foundation – one that protects our environment, puts people back to work, and rebuilds our communities. President Obama has called for an economic recovery package saying: "We have the opportunity now to create jobs all across this country in all 50 states to repower America, to redesign how we use energy and think about how we are increasing efficiency to make our economy stronger, make us more safe, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make us com-petitive for decades to come — even as we save the planet." This week Congress is debating and finalizing a stimulus package. A good plan will repower America and protect our environment by making public buildings more efficient and putting solar panels on roofs, weatherizing 1 million U.S. homes, training more than 100,000 new workers to install clean energy systems like solar panels, and increasing public transportation capacity by 10 percent a year. Through federal community block grants, Duluth can retrofit public buildings for efficiency and renewable energy generation, and fund the projects the city most needs. It's time to get transit projects off the drawing board. Building Duluth's proposed light rail and trolley systems would employ hundreds of people and provide more transportation options. Through a green economic recovery plan, we'll begin to move from an economy powered by dirty energy to one fueled by clean, homegrown energy. This focus will result in new jobs here in the northland and across the nation and reduce our costly dependence on oil. It will also mean more energy security, fewer asthma attacks from air pollution; and the protection of our thousands of lakes and rivers for clean drinking water, swimming and fishing. We'll also be doing our part to solve global warming. Global warming presents an enormous threat to our planet and our very way of life, and the lat-est climate science suggests we have only a few years to reduce our global warming pollution and avoid the most catastrophic impacts. As the Duluth News Tribune reported in October, Duluth's average temperature in 2007 was 1.7 degrees above the historical average. Scientists at the U of M are predicting that if global warming goes unchecked, our state's precious gem, the Boundary Wa-ters Wilderness will be threatened. We must take steps to reduce our global warming pollution now, and the good news is that doing so will also help rev our economic engine. Instead of importing fossil fuel energy, the northland would do well to harness the homegrown resources of the wind and sun. We're already seeing the positive effect renewable energy develop-ment is bringing to the local economy. If we can manufacture and install more systems in our re-gion, we'll turn the trickle of green jobs into the torrent of new economic opportunities needed. The stimulus bill looks like a step in the right direction, however, the same interests who have always opposed a new energy economy — Big Oil, King Coal, the road-builders and other polluting interests – will be working hard to preserve the status quo. President Obama, Representative Ober-star and the rest of the new Congress must keep it clean and pass a green recovery plan for a cleaner safer stronger America. Paul Helstrom of Duluth works for Great Northern Solar, a solar electric company. Samantha Chadwick is an environmental associate with Environment Minnesota, a statewide, citizen-based advocacy organization based in Minneapolis.   

Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party

www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/