Infrastructure with a green outlook
President-elect Obama wants part of an economic stimulus package spent on green initiatives. One group is looking at improving man-made infrastructure with the environment in mind. Sarah Gardner reports.
Construction on the I-580 freeway in Emeryville, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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Steve Chiotakis: There's a Senate hearing today some eco-friendly ways to give a jolt to the sagging economy. President-elect Obama wants part of an economic stimulus package spent on "green" initiatives. And that has people lining up for some slivers of the pie. From the Marketplace Sustainability Desk, here's Sarah Gardner.
Sarah Gardner: Obama has already said he favors making federal buildings more energy efficient and updating the country's power grid. But some say spend money on carbon capture and storage. Build more wind turbines, say others.
The Nature Conservancy is pushing projects to repair what it calls green infrastructure -- wetlands like the damaged Everglades, for example. And when it comes to spending money on man-made infrastructure, The Conservancy's Bob Bendick says we can do better this time around:
Bob Bendick: If we're going to be repairing infrastructure such as highways, or building new infrastructure as part of this, it ought to be as green as possible. It ought to respect water systems, it ought to respect wildlife.
Tomorrow, a coalition of 17 environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, will announce stimulus spending ideas. Barack Obama wants to create 2.5 million green jobs over the next two years.
I'm Sarah Gardner for Marketplace.
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