On Gristmill, David Roberts discusses a recent CNN discussion called “Dreaming of a Climate Bailout.” What could be done with $700 billion toward the goal of weaning the country off fossil fuels. He mentions a James Carrol essay that pointed out the sum of $700 billion made the news twice recently: first, the Wall Street bailout, but also the Pentagon budget. A commenter John Schneider claims it’s the same bill for for U.S. oil purchases. He suggests this:

Why not use the 700 billion over 10 years to eliminate those oil imports? Order a million plugin hybrids per year, for government use, from US automakers. Spend 20 billion per year on that.

Order a million solar cogeneration systems per year, to place on government buildings, to power the plugin cars. Use another 20 billion for that.

Buy another million ground source heating/cooling systems for government buildings. There goes another 20 billion per year.

Put the rest into smart grid technology to hook the devices together.

Jawbone corporations to join in, upgrading their vehicles, energy, and heating/cooling systems, with additional long term orders.

Divert subsidies from old energy economy companies to direct subsidies for taxpayers to buy these devices too, the cost reduced by mass production efficiency.

Tax carbon and give those revenues in tax credits to purchase these devices to everyone under 200k in annual income on a sliding scale.

That’s a pretty good way to spernd 700 billion over 10 years. it would revive US manufacturing, job, and tax bases all at once. There’s a stimulus package we can count on.

Much more effective than giving it to investment “banks” (hedge funds disguised as banks).