Comments EnergyGuy has made
Some suggestions and feedback...
I generally agree that most of these proposals are not very good as a stimulus. But pretty much all stimulus bills are window dressing anyway. I think that dropping another $2 billion into fuel assistance (LIHEAP) would be a good stimulus and you could also add to the low income weatherization program (HWAP), but probably only about $200 million at most could be absorbed quickly (and even that wouldn't be very fast). BTW, the new Bush budgets eliminates the weatherization program...
I do have to disagree with some of your claims:
Things like tax credits for more efficient homes and appliances fail the test for a couple of related reasons. The biggest problem is that they shift consumption, from buying inefficient equipment to more efficient equipment. They tend not to generate new consumption, which is what we need.
Typically the more efficient item being subsidized is more expensive. When buying a new gas furnace, you can spend an extra ~$800 to get a more efficient unit or not. If a $300 rebate helps you decide to make that upgrade, that is actually leveraging even more dollars than the rebate amount. The biggest problem with the rebates is the time it takes for them to have an impact.if we stop using renewable electricity, we'll start using more of other types of electricity, so we may end up replacing all those lost renewable jobs with other ones in the traditional energy sector
I guess you don't know much about the labor intensity of renewables versus traditional generation. Renewables are more labor intensive and provide more jobs per kwh than standard power generation. I thought that was pretty well know -- at least for a "green economist".On The green tax credits are good ideas, but not good stimulus ideas posted 1 year, 9 months ago 4 Responses