“American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan” – for makers…

There’s a weekly address from our new president (you can check that out here) – but I wanted to pull out some of what might be interesting for the makers (and the soon-to-be makers out there). Post up in the comments about what you think individuals can do, what companies can do and what “we” can do as some of these proposals get approved – a reminder, we’re not a political site, keep it on topic, constructive and solutions-based, thanks gang. The largest weatherization program in history seems very “DIY” to me, modernizing 75% of federal buildings and two million homes – have you weatherized your home? Oddly enough, I saw that Home Depot’s twitter account had this suggestion a few weeks ago…

To accelerate the creation of a clean energy economy, we will double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy like wind, solar, and biofuels over the next three years. We’ll begin to build a new electricity grid that lay down more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines to convey this new energy from coast to coast. We’ll save taxpayers $2 billion a year by making 75% of federal buildings more energy efficient, and save the average working family $350 on their energy bills by weatherizing 2.5 million homes.

Finally, we will rebuild and retrofit America to meet the demands of the 21st century. That means repairing and modernizing thousands of miles of America’s roadways and providing new mass transit options for millions of Americans. It means protecting America by securing 90 major ports and creating a better communications network for local law enforcement and public safety officials in the event of an emergency. And it means expanding broadband access to millions of Americans, so business can compete on a level-playing field, wherever they’re located.

And from the “The American Reinvestment and Recovery Plan – By the Numbers” PDF…

Spurring a Clean Energy Economy

• Doubling renewable energy generating capacity over three years. It took 30 years for our nation to reach its current level of renewable generating capacity – the recovery and reinvestment plan will double that level over the next three years. That increase in capacity is enough to power 6 million American homes.
• Jump-starting the transformation to a bigger, better, smarter grid. The upfront investments and reforms in modernizing our nation’s electricity grid will result in more than 3,000 miles of new or modernized transmission lines and 40 million “Smart Meters” in American homes.
• Weatherizing at least two million homes to save low-income families on average $350 per year and modernizing more than 75% of federal building space, saving taxpayers $2 billion per year in lower federal energy bills. Today, the federal government is the world’s largest consumer of energy. The recovery and reinvestment plan will make an historic investment in upgrading the federal building stock that will save taxpayer dollars and help catalyze a green building industry.
• Launching a Clean Energy Finance Initiative to leverage $100 billion in private sector clean energy investments over three years. The finance authority will provide loan  guarantees and other financial support to help ease credit constraints for renewable energy investors and catalyze new private sector investment over the next three years.