A New Plan for A 'Green Recovery'
A new report released demonstrates how a new Green Recovery program that invests $100 billion over two years would create 2 million new jobs.
Yesterday, the Center for American Progress released "Green Recovery," a new report by Dr. Robert Pollin and University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute economists. This report demonstrates how a new Green Recovery program that invests $100 billion over two years would create 2 million new jobs with a significant proportion in the struggling construction and manufacturing sectors. It is clear from this research that a strategy to invest in the greening of our economy will create more jobs, and better jobs, compared to continuing to pursue a path of inaction marked by rising dependence on fossil fuel billionaires.
To create 2 million new jobs within two years, the overall level of fiscal expansion will need to be around $100 billion, or roughly the same as the portion of the April 2008 stimulus program that was targeted at expanding household consumption. This green economic recovery program will create more jobs and better paying jobs. If Congress decided, as part of a domestic oil production and gas price reduction effort, to spend $100 billion on new oil and gas subsidies that subsidize gasoline and oil prices, only a quarter as many jobs would be created:
The plan calls for most of the stimulus to go directly to the private sector, with $50 billion for tax credits and $4 billion for federal loan guarantees. $46 billion in direct government spending would support public building retrofits, the expansion of mass transit, freight rail, smart electrical grid systems, and new investments. This $100 billion investment is targeted at six key sectors in building a green economy today:
- Retrofitting buildings to improve energy efficiency
- Expanding mass transit and freight rail
- Constructing smart electrical grid transmission systems
- Wind power
- Solar power
- Next-generation biofuels
The Green Recovery program is part of a comprehensive low-carbon energy strategy and could be paid for with proceeds from auctions of carbon permits under a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program.
