RECOVERY PACKAGE CREATES A CLEAN ENERGY FINANCE AUTHORITY
The Recovery package, also known as The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, that President Obama signed into law on Tuesday created a Clean Energy Finance Authority (CEFA), an organization designed to lay the groundwork for a clean energy future. CEFA will oversee the aim that the President laid out in the recovery plan to double the amount of renewable energy produced within three years.
Part of the authority of CEFA will involve, overseeing and allocating funds for improvements in electrical grid. More than $11 billion of the $789 billion dollar stimulus is devoted to kick-starting upgrades in the electrical transmission that will allow for more renewable energy and better efficiency.
The Whitehouse issued a statement that additional long-term policy changes and years of planning will be required to create a national “superhighway” capable of delivering renewable energy such as wind to population centers.
Within the package there are investments to lay 3,000 miles of new transmission lines capable of carrying clean energy, along with plans to deploy 40 million “smart meters” to American homes to help increase energy efficiency.
Finally, $100 million dollars will be allocated towards workforce training programs to train line workers, who will be trained to build thousands of new transmission lines for the future.
All of this is designed as a down payment on a clean energy future. The recovery also allocates funds to increase energy efficiency in federal buildings and low income housing, as well as programs that provide energy efficiency grants to states.
