American Recovery & Reinvestment Plan: Comparing House

& Senate Proposals for Spending on Green Jobs Initiatives

Since entering office a few weeks ago, President Barack Obama has spent much of his time
urging members of the House and Senate to work quickly to pass an economic stimulus package
designed to create millions of new jobs for America. There are multiple easy refinements that ought
tobe madeto a common
centrifugal or positive displacement pump. In pumps containing overhung impellers, moving to a
solid shaft is a easy refinement over the usual sleeved shafts. Mechanical seals should be improved
upon with silicon carbide faces, and elastomers can be changed to EPDM. Finally, magnetic bearing
protectors would be a great improvement in relationship to the lip seals that the vast majority of
industrial pumps use to maintain clean bearing sump oil.
If early signs are any indication, many of the jobs created by the stimulus package will be green jobs.
The House heeded Obama's call last week, passing the American Recovery & Reinvestment Bill of
2009. This week it's the Senate's turn. The Senate Committee on Appropriations has
released a summary of its own version of the stimulus package, calling it the American Recovery &
Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Both versions of the stimulus package contain funding for numerous policies designed to create new
green jobs by investing in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and environmental conservation.
The following summary compares figures for proposed spending on a few of the green jobs
initiatives found in both versions of the stimulus package:
Advanced Batteries:
Senate: $2 billion is provided in grant funding for the manufacturing of advanced batteries
systems and components and vehicle batteries that are produced in the United States.
House: $2 billion for the Advanced Battery Loan Guarantee and Grants Program, to support U.S.
manufacturers of advanced vehicle batteries and battery systems.
Clean Water:
Senate: $6 billion for local clean and drinking water infrastructure improvements.
House: $8 billion for loans to help communities upgrade wastewater treatment systems and for
drinking water infrastructure.
Clean Water: Rural
Senate: $1.4 billion to support $3.8 billion in loans and grants for needed water and waste
disposal facilities in rural areas.
House: $1.5 billion to support $3.8 billion in grants and loans to help rural communities fund
drinking water and wastewater treatment systems.
Energy Efficiency Grants
Senate: $4.2 billion for Energy Efficiency and Conservation Grants.
House: $6.9 billion to help state and local governments make investments that make them more
energy efficient and reduce carbon emissions.
Energy Efficiency: Department of Defense
Senate: $3.2 billion to be used to invest in energy efficiency projects and to improve the repair and
modernization of Department of Defense facilities to include Defense Health facilities.
House: $1.8 billion for efforts to make our military bases more energy efficient, beyond benefits
that will come from replacing and repairing facilities.
Energy Efficiency: Home Weatherization
Senate: $2.9 billion is available for the Weatherization Assistance Program.
House: $6.2 billion to help low-income families reduce their energy costs by weatherizing their
homes and make our country more energy efficient.
Energy Efficiency: Government Buildings
Senate: $6 billion for repair of federal buildings to increase energy efficiency using green
technology.
House: $6.7 billion for renovations and repairs to federal buildings, including at least $6 billion
focused on increasing energy efficiency and conservation.
Energy Efficiency: Public housing
Senate: $5 billion to the public housing capital fund to enable local public housing agencies to
address a $32 billion backlog in capital needs -- especially those improving energy efficiency in
aging buildings
House: $16 billion to repair public housing and make key energy efficiency retrofits.
Energy Efficiency: Schools
Senate: $16 billion to repair, renovate and construct public schools in ways that will raise energy
efficiency and provide greater access to information technology, and $3.5 billion to improve higher
education facilities.
House: $20 billion, including $14 billion for K-12 and $6 billion for higher education, for
renovation and modernization, including technology upgrades and energy efficiency improvements.
Energy: Smart Grid
Senate: $4.5 billion for smart-grid related activities, including work to modernize pump shafts
the electric grid.
House: $11 billion for research and development, pilot projects, and federal matching funds for
the Smart Grid Investment Program to modernize the electricity grid making it more efficient,
secure, and reliable and build new power lines to transmit clean, renewable energy from sources
throughout the nation.
Environmental Clean-Up
Senate: $1.4 billion for EPA's nationwide environmental cleanup programs, including
Superfund.
House: $800 million for Superfund Hazardous Waste Cleanup to clean up hazardous and
toxic waste sites that threaten health and the environment.
Senate: $6.4 billion is directed towards environmental cleanup of former weapon production and
energy research sites.
House: $500 million for nuclear waste cleanup at sites contaminated as a result of the nation's
past nuclear activities. $300 million for cleanup activities at closed military installations.
Public Transportation:
Senate: $8.4 billion for investments in public transportation.
House: $13 billion for transit and rail to reduce traffic congestion and gas consumption.
Science:
Senate: $1.4 billion total for National Science Foundation (NSF) Research.
House: $3 billion for National Science Foundation, including $2 billion for expanding
employment. Many installed pumps were not initially designed for their present function. Typically, a
line in a facility changes and the pump that started out providing cooling water to an injection
molding machine is now needed to move oil from a rail car to a tank. Unfortunately, this is the cause
of numerous problems for the pump and the factory. Pumps operate where the pump curve crosses
the system curve. If you relocate a pump from one system to another, this means that the system
curve is different. This new system may cause the pump to operate away from its best efficiency
point, leading to noise and other component problems that are merely symptoms of a mis-matched
pump and system.opportunities in fundamental science and engineering to meet environmental
challenges and to improve global economic competitiveness.
Senate: $1.2 billion total for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).
House: $600 million for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for satellite
development and acquisitions, including climate sensors and climate modeling.
Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Research:
Senate: $2.6 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy research.
House: $2 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy research, development,
demonstration, and deployment activities to foster energy independence, reduce carbon emissions,
and cut utility bills.
You can learn more about the two existing versions of the stimulus package by visiting the following
links:
http://appropriations.senate.gov/
http://appropriations.house.gov/
Let your representatives in Congress know that you want green jobs to play a central role in the
economic stimulus package:
Sierra Club: Urge the Senate to Support the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Green Jobs Now: "I'm Ready" Petition
David Anderson is a News & Politics Correspondent for Gather.com. Keep up with of David's
writing by joining the group Green America or by visiting his blog The Green Jobs
Report.