After lush campaign promises of investing in the nation’s environmental sustainability by creating thousands of jobs that promote alternative energy, Barack Obama has put his—his, ours, whatever—money where his mouth is and pledged $70 billion to revive America’s green revolution.

The $70 billion will be invested in electricity grid modernization, new mass transit and high-speed rail initiatives, energy efficiency projects aimed at renewable energies, and environmental cleanup.

The considerable chunk of revenue for the environment comes after Congress earlier this month approved and passed Obama’s $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, known to Joe the Plumber as the stimulus bill. Despite being allotted less than 10% of the stimulus budget, the recent legislation, being praised by many across the environmental spectrum, is one of the vastest and greenest of its kind in American history.

“This is a historic and unprecedented investment in clean energy, green jobs, and green infrastructure,” said Melinda Pierce, the Sierra Club’s Deputy Director of National Campaigns, in an earlier interview.

Just how green is green?

According to Sierra Club’s Allegheny Group, $11 billion was the heftiest investment of the environmental stimulus bill, awarded to the research and creation of a smart-grid electricity network.

A smart grid is a modernized electricity network that functions to correct inefficiencies in the electrical distribution system. Smart grids have sensory capabilities that reduce power consumption, synthesize unconventional grid connections like wind turbines, hydro, and heat power, incorporate efficient grid energy storage, and self-correct unnecessary power-grid failures.

Advocates of smart-grid technologies have long predicted that a modern electricity network would relieve American dependence on foreign oil and decrease carbon emissions. A study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy (pdf) found that a smart grid would save billions of dollars in energy consumption over the next 20 years.

One of those advocates is Tom Casey, President and CEO of CURRENT, a company that specializes in smart-grid technology. In an interview with Brendan B. Read, Casey hailed the technology sector as a major source of employment.

“Smart Grid produces the most near-term and long-term jobs per dollar spent of any clean energy provision in the stimulus package,” Casey said before endorsing his company as a serious contender in the smart-grid field. “CURRENT's solutions are available today and we are ready to work with utilities across the nation to deliver on the President's job recovery program with Smart Grid projects that are shovel-ready.”

Other outlays of stimulus monies include an $8.4 billion earmark for public transportation and $9.3 billion for investments in rail and high-speed rail transportation. Another $6 billion will be allotted to loan guarantees and investments in renewable energies like solar and wind power, and electricity transmission projects. Another $6 billion will go to covering clean-up costs at former weapon production and energy research sites.

A hefty $20 billion chunk will go to using green technology to repair and redesign federal buildings, grants for sustainable energy research, funding for alternative fuel trucks and buses, development of energy-efficient appliances, funding for public housing agencies to save energy, and distributing grants and loans for water and waste disposal facilities in rural areas.

Like the rest of the $787 billion stimulus package, the environmental portion of the bill also has people up in arms—this time, for a good reason.
 
“This monumental bill revolutionizes our government’s approach to clean energy and will finally transform our economy into something that works for the 21st century,” said Pierce. “With these investments and incentives in clean energy, efficiency and smarter infrastructure, we will be able to literally rebuild the American economy in a way that not only creates jobs but sets us on the path to a clean energy future.”

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