# The Answer to the Billion Dollar Question

*Published:* 2008-10-29
*Author:* Tony Kreindler

![Tony Kreindler](https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/wp-content/blogs.dir/7/files/2008/03/tony_kreindler.jpg)There’s a lot of buzz right now about the potential for "green" economic stimulus – policies and investments that grow the economy, create jobs, and protect the planet at the same time.

- [Treehugger](http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/california-good-green-economy.php) reports that energy efficiency investment in California has led to 1.5 million new jobs and $56 billion in savings between 1972 and 2006.
- An editorial in the *[Seattle Times](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008303013_opin24gillerweb.html)* explains how heavy investment in green infrastructure can put people back to work as well as solve the climate crisis.
- A post on [Gristmill](http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/10/22/103852/63) cites [Paul Krugman’s argument](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/opinion/17krugman.html) that federal spending is the only way out of our economic woes, and suggests that this spending should include a Green Jobs program.

Investing in projects to repair and update our aging infrastructure would pay off in new jobs and a more efficient America. But where will the money come from? Stuck between pay-as-you-go rules and no new middle-class taxes, Congress doesn’t have a lot of options. One could be the auction of pollution allowances under a national greenhouse gas emissions cap. Estimates are that an auction could generate somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 billion per year.

As EDF President [Fred Krupp](http://edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=870) explained yesterday on the [National Journal](http://energy.nationaljournal.com/2008/10/climate-change-efforts.php#comment-1159345) blog,

> …an emissions cap that includes an auction of pollution credits – a feature of many of the bills on Capitol Hill – could generate a substantial new source of revenue for easing the burden on taxpayers and putting more investment into transportation and electric infrastructure improvement as well as other important economic priorities.

*This post is by Tony Kreindler, media director for the National Climate Campaign at Environmental Defense Fund.*