Obama Embraces Green Collar Stimulus

The Associated Press reports plans for a massive new green-collar federal stimulus package:

Obama has also embraced calls for a "green jobs" program that invests as much as $100 billion in projects to slash harmful emissions. This could include projects such as retrofitting buildings to make them more energy-efficient, upgrading the electrical grid and improving mass transit.

"It turns out that putting money into green technologies ... has a very large positive employment effect relative to tax cuts," said Robert Pollin, a University of Massachusetts-Amherst economist who has written extensively on what he calls the "green recovery."

"It's very efficient in terms of creating jobs for a given amount of spending, and it has the added benefit that the short-term effects are compatible with long-term needs in the economy," Pollin said.

On Monday morning, December 1, from 9 to 10:30 a.m. (Cascadia time), the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC, will webcast a forum including some of the nation's leading voices on green recovery. RSVP for the webcast.

This piece originally appeared on The Sightline Institute's blog, The Daily Blog.