To Green Or Not To Green The Stimulus

Claiming a truly green stimulus package would save the US economy $450 million for every $1 billion spent, the World Resources Institute and the Peterson Institute for International Economics released a persuasive report outlining the benefits that environmental provisions in the stimulus bill would have on the job market and taxpayers.

But with Republicans and Democrats both gutting the stimulus of “extras” before its final vote, green measures have been some of the first to the chopping block. How would big thinkers include green measures in the stimulus? Are they inextricable from economic recovery in the US or part of Obama’s progressive agenda we should tackle when the economy is back on its feet?