Dan Weiss and Alexandra Kougentakis at the Center for American Progress take a look at the Senate’s version of the stimulus plan and conclude that, on the whole, it’s better in terms of clean energy investments and incentives than the House version.
While several not-so-green programs would get funding in the Senate plan — including $50 billion in loan guarantees for the nuclear industry and $4.6 billion for the coal industry — green projects overall would get approximately $7 billion more in spending.
The Senate’s American Investment and Recovery Plan (not to be confused with the House’s “American Reinvestment and Recover Act”) includes $78 billion in clean energy spending as part of their $365 billion recovery package. The tax package also has $31 billion in tax incentives for renewables and energy efficiency, compared to $20 billion in the House plan.
Grid improvement funds are higher in the Senate version — $21 billion compared with the House’s $19 billion. Same with funds for renewables — $7.6 billion, to the House’s $5.1 billion.
We mistakenly wrote yesterday that mass transit fares worse in the Senate version of the bill when compared with the House’s $14.6 billion. But transit gets a better deal in the Senate overall, at $17 billion. Amtrak especially fares better — $3.1 billion to the House’s $1.1 billion.
Investments in building and appliance efficiency, meanwhile, did better in the House version — $5 billion more than the Senate plan.
Of course, the Senate’s version could still change when it moves to floor for debate next week, and any differences between the bills the two chambers pass would have to be worked out in a conference committee.
