A Glimpse Inside the Stimulus Bill

Although the stimuls bill passed last week, there still doesn’t seem to be a lot of detailed information about its exact provisions.   It does appear, however, that the final legislation has considerable benefits for clean energy, as CNN details:

Energy firms may reap the biggest rewards from the package, which is flush with dollars for investment in renewable energy and smart grid technologies.

The bill includes $11 billion to improve the electric grid, including to provide for more efficient transmission of power from renewable sources. That would help smart grid technology providers such as Ambient Corp. (ABTG) and Echelon Corp. (ELON).

Wind energy producers such as GE Energy, a unit of General Electric Co. (GE), and Spain’s Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC), would gain under a three-year extension of green energy production tax credits. Renewable energy tax incentives total $15 billion.

Wind firms and solar companies such as SunPower Corp. (SPWRA) won a new grants program designed to provide a direct cash infusion to projects that have lagged because of tight credit markets and a lack of tax credit investors.

There’s also quite a bit for scientific research, according to Business Week:

• $3 billion for the National Science Foundation for basic research in fundamental science and engineering.

• $1.6 billion for the Energy Dept.’s Office of Science, which funds research in such areas as climate science, biofuels, high-energy physics, nuclear physics, and fusion energy sciences—areas crucial to our energy future.

• $400 million for the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy to support high-risk, high-payoff research into energy sources and energy efficiency in collaboration with industry.

• $580 million for the National Institute of Standards & Technology, including the Technology Innovation Program and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

• $8.5 billion for the National Institutes of Health, including expanding good jobs in biomedical research to study diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, and heart disease.

• $1.5 billion for NIH to renovate university research facilities.

• $1 billion for the National Aeronautics & Space Administration, including $400 million to put more scientists to work doing climate change research.

climate research, economist stimulus, Energy, energy research, scientific research