{"id":671,"date":"2008-10-29T12:31:47","date_gmt":"2008-10-29T17:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/"},"modified":"2008-10-30T10:24:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-30T15:24:00","slug":"billion_dollar_question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/","title":{"rendered":"The Answer to the Billion Dollar Question"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/tony_kreindler.jpg\" alt=\"Tony Kreindler\" height=\"80\" align=\"left\" hspace=\"8\" class=\"blogAuthorPic\" \/>There&#8217;s a lot of buzz right now about the potential for &quot;green&quot; economic stimulus &#8211; policies and investments that grow the economy, create jobs, and protect the planet at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.treehugger.com\/files\/2008\/10\/california-good-green-economy.php\">Treehugger<\/a> reports that energy efficiency investment in California has led to 1.5 million new jobs and $56 billion in savings between 1972 and 2006.<\/li>\n<li>An editorial in the <i><a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/opinion\/2008303013_opin24gillerweb.html\">Seattle Times<\/a><\/i> explains how heavy investment in green infrastructure can put people back to work as well as solve the climate crisis.<\/li>\n<li>A post on <a href=\"http:\/\/gristmill.grist.org\/story\/2008\/10\/22\/103852\/63\">Gristmill<\/a> cites <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/10\/17\/opinion\/17krugman.html\">Paul Krugman&#8217;s argument<\/a> that federal spending is the only way out of our economic woes, and suggests that this spending should include a Green Jobs program.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>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&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>As EDF President <a href=\"http:\/\/edf.org\/page.cfm?tagID=870\">Fred Krupp<\/a> explained yesterday on the <a href=\"http:\/\/energy.nationaljournal.com\/2008\/10\/climate-change-efforts.php#comment-1159345\">National Journal<\/a> blog,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230;an emissions cap that includes an auction of pollution credits &#8211; a feature of many of the bills on Capitol Hill &#8211; 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><i>This post is by Tony Kreindler, media director for the National Climate Campaign at Environmental Defense Fund.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s a lot of buzz right now about the potential for &quot;green&quot; economic stimulus &#8211; policies and investments that grow the economy, create jobs, and protect the planet at the same time. &nbsp; Treehugger reports that energy efficiency investment in California has led to 1.5 million new jobs and $56 billion in savings between 1972 &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Answer to the Billion Dollar Question - Climate 411<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Answer to the Billion Dollar Question - Climate 411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There&#8217;s a lot of buzz right now about the potential for &quot;green&quot; economic stimulus &#8211; policies and investments that grow the economy, create jobs, and protect the planet at the same time. &nbsp; Treehugger reports that energy efficiency investment in California has led to 1.5 million new jobs and $56 billion in savings between 1972 ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate 411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-10-29T17:31:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-10-30T15:24:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/tony_kreindler.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tony Kreindler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tony Kreindler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/29\\\/billion_dollar_question\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/29\\\/billion_dollar_question\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tony Kreindler\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6129ad8b0daf4a4bc105b08adaad60e5\"},\"headline\":\"The Answer to the Billion Dollar Question\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-10-29T17:31:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-10-30T15:24:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/29\\\/billion_dollar_question\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":278,\"commentCount\":4,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/29\\\/billion_dollar_question\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/7\\\/files\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/tony_kreindler.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Economics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/29\\\/billion_dollar_question\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/29\\\/billion_dollar_question\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/29\\\/billion_dollar_question\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Answer to the Billion Dollar Question - Climate 411\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/29\\\/billion_dollar_question\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/29\\\/billion_dollar_question\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/7\\\/files\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/tony_kreindler.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-10-29T17:31:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-10-30T15:24:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6129ad8b0daf4a4bc105b08adaad60e5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/29\\\/billion_dollar_question\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/29\\\/billion_dollar_question\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/29\\\/billion_dollar_question\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/7\\\/files\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/tony_kreindler.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/7\\\/files\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/tony_kreindler.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/29\\\/billion_dollar_question\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Answer to the Billion Dollar Question\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/\",\"name\":\"Climate 411\",\"description\":\"Blogging the science and policy of global warming\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6129ad8b0daf4a4bc105b08adaad60e5\",\"name\":\"Tony Kreindler\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b50c83a5bd8dced8c9adb9f2f80a9221f3965f77748af69054eeb601fde6b9ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g259026ad0abe5aad66d9dd55cf2aef7a\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b50c83a5bd8dced8c9adb9f2f80a9221f3965f77748af69054eeb601fde6b9ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b50c83a5bd8dced8c9adb9f2f80a9221f3965f77748af69054eeb601fde6b9ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tony Kreindler\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/author\\\/tkreindler\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Answer to the Billion Dollar Question - Climate 411","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Answer to the Billion Dollar Question - Climate 411","og_description":"There&#8217;s a lot of buzz right now about the potential for &quot;green&quot; economic stimulus &#8211; policies and investments that grow the economy, create jobs, and protect the planet at the same time. &nbsp; Treehugger reports that energy efficiency investment in California has led to 1.5 million new jobs and $56 billion in savings between 1972 ...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/","og_site_name":"Climate 411","article_published_time":"2008-10-29T17:31:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2008-10-30T15:24:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/tony_kreindler.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Tony Kreindler","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tony Kreindler","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/"},"author":{"name":"Tony Kreindler","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/#\/schema\/person\/6129ad8b0daf4a4bc105b08adaad60e5"},"headline":"The Answer to the Billion Dollar Question","datePublished":"2008-10-29T17:31:47+00:00","dateModified":"2008-10-30T15:24:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/"},"wordCount":278,"commentCount":4,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/tony_kreindler.jpg","articleSection":["Economics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/","name":"The Answer to the Billion Dollar Question - Climate 411","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/tony_kreindler.jpg","datePublished":"2008-10-29T17:31:47+00:00","dateModified":"2008-10-30T15:24:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/#\/schema\/person\/6129ad8b0daf4a4bc105b08adaad60e5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/tony_kreindler.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/tony_kreindler.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/10\/29\/billion_dollar_question\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Answer to the Billion Dollar Question"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/","name":"Climate 411","description":"Blogging the science and policy of global warming","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/#\/schema\/person\/6129ad8b0daf4a4bc105b08adaad60e5","name":"Tony Kreindler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b50c83a5bd8dced8c9adb9f2f80a9221f3965f77748af69054eeb601fde6b9ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g259026ad0abe5aad66d9dd55cf2aef7a","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b50c83a5bd8dced8c9adb9f2f80a9221f3965f77748af69054eeb601fde6b9ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b50c83a5bd8dced8c9adb9f2f80a9221f3965f77748af69054eeb601fde6b9ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tony Kreindler"},"url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/author\/tkreindler\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}