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Green Career Tip - Following the Stimulus Package Money Trail

By Carol McClelland

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 25May2009 Word count: 655 Viewed: 203 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

You've no doubt heard about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that was signed into law on February 17, 2009 to provide tax dollars ($787 Billion) to stimulate the economy. Have you wondered where the money has landed?

After the law was signed, we heard about the Recovery.gov site (www.recovery.gov) designed to provide a transparent view of where the money is going by category (http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/investments). That page is interesting, but it doesn't even begin to tell the full story.

Now, just 3 months later, you'll find a number of very interesting details.

1) Interested in what funds your state is getting? You can find the distribution of funds by state (http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/investments-state) and by programs within each state (click through on your state on the map for the details.) According to the small print on the map, these maps illustrate funds that have been distributed to date. As more funds are distributed, the map will be updated. Although not all of the programs are green, it's fairly easy to scan the list of programs to identify the programs that have an environmental/green flavor to them.

2) Perhaps the most interesting chart is the table that shows how the money has been distributed by agency (http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/investments-agency). As you arrive on the page, notice the two columns of numbers. The first column indicates the amount of money that agency is expecting to receive. The second column shows you the amount of money that has been paid to the agency thus far. (Keep in mind, that tax provisions and guaranteed loans are not factored into these columns of numbers.)

When you compare the two columns, you'll soon see that, relatively speaking, very little money has been distributed.

So when you hear people lamenting the "minimal impact" the stimulus money is having, remember that most of the money hasn't been announced or distributed...yet! Doesn't it make sense that we also haven't seen much evidence of new job creation...yet either?

Click on the name of each agency (http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/investments-agency) to discover more details about the rate at which funds are being distributed; major announcements made by the agency, and planned actions by the agency. One more tip: Click on View Recovery Site on each page to visit the agency's main website for even more detail.

You are most likely to find green/environmental funding for the following agencies:

- Department of Energy (http://www.recovery.gov/?q=/content/agency-summary&agency_code=89)

- Department of Transportation (http://www.recovery.gov/?q=/content/agency-summary&agency_code=69)

- Department of Agriculture (http://www.recovery.gov/?q=/content/agency-summary&agency_code=12)

- Department of Environmental Protection (http://www.recovery.gov/?q=/content/agency-summary&agency_code=68)

3) If you are interested in the energy efficient building initiatives within the ARRA, you'll want to look in a different area of Recovery.gov site. Basically, $4.5 billion is dedicated to transforming federal facilities into exemplary high-performance green buildings, $750 million to will go toward renovating and constructing new federal offices and courthouses, and $300 million is slated to constructing and renovating border stations. The Building Recovery initiatives (http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/building-recovery) section includes a report of projects awarded in the various states ( http://www.recovery.gov/sites/default/files/ARRA%202009%20GSA.pdf).

Actions You Can Take

- Visit the home page of Recovery.gov frequently to track the announcements on the left hand column. Several announcements are added to the site each week!

- Scroll to the bottom of the home page for a time line of key ARRA milestones.

- Sign up for updates about the recovery process by entering your email and zip code in the upper right corner of the home page.

- Take some time to explore all the other areas of the website. There's even more than I've reported here. Really!

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