• More Blogs
• Observations »
• Bering in Mind »
• Cross-check »
• Extinction Countdown »
• Solar at Home »
• Expeditions »
• Guest Blog »
• Anecdotes from the Archive »

Democratic lawmakers are calling for $80 billion in federal funds to be set aside to beef up the nation's Internet services, develop renewable energy sources and computerize health care records. 

The investment would be part of the $825 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 [pdf] (which the House is expected to vote on the week of Jan. 26). The money spent on new technology is expected to "increase economic efficiency by spurring technological advances in science and health" via $54 billion to bolster production of energy from renewable sources, $20 billion to computerize health care records and $6 billion to provide broadband Internet to regions where it's lacking.

Of the $54 billion earmarked to help the U.S. further embrace green energy, $32 billion would go toward transforming the nation's energy transmission, distribution, and production systems by allowing for a "smarter" and better grid and focusing investment in renewable technology.

A "smart grid" is an approach to operating the nation's electricity transmission and distribution system using advanced digital technology to save energy and cost, and to allow demand response, use of storage technologies (including plug-in hybrid batteries), integration of dispersed renewable and distributed generators, enhanced reliability and quicker repair of outages, and improved power quality.

Another $16 billion of the government's investment in green would be used to repair public housing and make key energy efficiency retrofits, with the remaining $6 billion being spent to weatherize "modest-income" homes, according to the House Appropriations Committee's summary of the bill [pdf].

The proposed legislation also calls for monies to be invested in a variety of other tech programs, including $650 million (that would be available through Sept. 30) to provide $40 coupons to American households to subsidize the cost of converter boxes (which generally cost between $50 and $70) that would enable them to continue to use their old TV sets when stations switch from analog to digital TV transmission.

Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a bill that would have delayed next month's nationwide shutdown of analog TV signals until June 12, but Democrats vowed to bring the measure back for a vote next week, the Associated Press reported. President-elect Barack Obama, set to be sworn in Tuesday, had asked lawmakers to postpone the Feb. 17 transition largely because the federal program that subsidizes converter boxes for those viewers hit a $1.34 billion funding limit this month. (People with digital TVs or who subscribe to satellite or digital cable service are already prepared for the transition.)

"Over 2 million Americans are waiting to receive a coupon to help them offset the cost of equipment that will help them manage the transition," Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., incoming chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said in a statement calling for a delay in the switchover. "Millions more don't have the proper information they need."

Image: © iStockphoto.com; Darko Novakovic

7 Comments

1. 1. beyondgreen 10:42 AM 1/17/09

   There could be no better investment in America than to invest in America becoming energy independent! We need to utilize everything in out power to reduce our dependence on foreign oil including using our own natural resources. Create cheap clean energy, new badly needed green jobs, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. OPEC will continue to cut production until they achieve their desired 80-100. per barrel. The high cost of fuel this past year seriously damaged our economy and society. Oil is finite. We are using oil globally at the rate of 2X faster than new oil is being discovered. We need to take some of these billions in bail out bucks and bail ourselves out of our dependence on foreign oil. Jeff Wilson has a really good new book out called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence Now. He explores our uses of oil besides gasoline, our depletion, out reserves and stores as well as viable options to replace oil.Oil is finite, it will run out in the not too distant future. WE need to take some of these billions in bail out bucks and bail America out of it's dependence on foreign oil. The historic high price of gas this past year did serious damage to our economy and society. WE should never allow others to have that much power over our economy again. I wish every member of congress would read this book too.
   www.themanhattanprojectof2009.com
   
   

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. krabcat 01:39 PM 1/17/09

   what we really need is to increase funding into fusion power the research i have done suggests that it is more than viable. the ITER program is getting very little funding from the US. after that is up and running the electric cars will have even less of a carbon footprint. we do not just need to get off foreign oil, we need to get off ALL fossil fuels. they are running out quick and soon they will be gone, or unreasonably expensive

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

3. 3. Lescar9 01:49 PM 1/17/09

   Instead of buying converter boxes so people can sit on their couches and watch TV how about we spend that money funding the huge shortfall that is arising in basic research. More NSF fellowships for Americans to get graduate educations in STEM fields, the physics funding that has been decimated, and keeping the NIH funded to the level it needs to be.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

4. 4. Micahlandis in reply to Lescar9 03:23 PM 1/17/09

   I agree with eliminating converter box funding and reallocating the money to basic research and scholarship programs. The idea that these people will be cut off from vital information due to a digital television switch is a farse. Most everyone has access to the radio, newspapers and internet at public domains. This is a waste of money.
   

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

5. 5. K. Daraa 06:22 PM 1/18/09

   Prepare For The Solar Super Storm Coming 2011 or 2012. To heck with "helping the nation to embrace green energy"...we just about have time to try and "harden" our "...nation's electricity transmission and distribution system using advanced digital technology..." before being hit by a solar super storm maximum of epic proportions...some scientists believe it will exceed the solar super storm of 1859 that melted telegraph wires http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/23oct_superstorm.htm
   Minor solar storms in the past twenty-five years have knocked out Canada's power grid completely for a day and caused $100's of billions in damage to things like GPS and communications satellites. We won't need the Internet if all our electronics are fried to a crisp! Coming our way 2011 or 2012. At least you'll have your government-funded converter boxes until then,and digital TV......at least for the next 18 to 36 months....enjoy.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

6. 6. RebuildingManagement 08:54 PM 1/18/09

   Rebuilding Management LLC has created a Web 2.0 software solution that Industrializes the Residential Restoration Industry. The existing housing industry is naturally fragmented, comprised of millions of small businesses that create millions of jobs. Those family owned businesses have been consistently failing ever since the nationwide housing market collapse. Our program will put them back to work immediately, weatherizing and rehabbing our existing housing stock. With the support of the Obama Administration, together we can revolutionize this archaic industry by empowering local CDCs to manage these small contractors in a nation-wide blight remediation program that has total transparency and accountability. We call this revolutionary public-private partnership the WPA 2.0.
   
   The WPA 2.0 is a nationwide housing restoration program that could integrate Solar Power Installations, Energy Star features and Green Building principles into every home. We offer the only environmentally responsible housing recovery program that not only creates jobs, but also reduces our dependency on foreign oil. What could be more Green than NOT demolishing millions of structurally sound homes? Instead, we would gut them down to their bones and retrofit them with todays building science technology. Jobs will be created, energy will be saved, housing will be more affordable and sustainable energy will be produced.
   
   Our system was designed for rapid deployment by using minimally skilled Americorp Volunteers in disaster areas. Therefore, nationwide implementation could be realized by employing the FEMA Volunteer Agency Liaison (VAL) structure. Local communities would adopt the FEMA LTRO/LTRC business model, integrating the social service organizations with the housing recovery organizations through the Coordinated Assistance Network (CAN). This would enable local communities to create millions of contracting jobs, remove blight, weatherize millions of homes and install millions of solar panels.
   
   From this revolutionary concept, a new industry will be born. An industry that will create jobs by fostering the rebirth and growth of small entrepreneurial trade contractors, the very backbone of the American economy. Incubating these new businesses to maturity will leave a lasting legacy of more productivity and less waste. We have harnessed the power of the manufacturing assembly line process and married it to the open source social media networks to create a nationwide virtual assembly line. Our solution is simple but the scale
   rwestmoreland@rebuildingmanagement.com
   www.rebuildingamangement.com
   
   

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

7. 7. KJeroH in reply to krabcat 12:14 PM 1/19/09

   It's almost as if fusion has been completely forgotten. It's funding has been pathetic, yet achieving it would produce the ample and cheap energy we so desperately need. Now there is a demand to start building nuclear power plants -- and we should -- but once upon a time the fission reactor was supposed to be a stop gap until we achieved fusion.
   
   And not only is oil finite and expensive with a host of international entanglements, it is also inefficient. In the best case about 40% of the oil can be economically pumped from a field. Then about 90% of a barrel of oil can be made into petrol chemicals; the rest is just waste. Most of the world's oil is not best case.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this