Let me start by saying that I give the president, whom I caucused for in Iowa and supported throughout, a B so far and think he's doing a reasonably good job overall. Let me add that I know that nothing is perfect and that this diary is not meant to be a comprehensive assessment of stimulus spending.
With that out of the way.... two recent stories about how stimulus funds are being used to subsidize sprawl and climate pollution have me ticked off.
(1)
STUART, Florida (CNN) -- The most expensive item on Florida's list of economic stimulus projects is drawing fire from some residents and at least one public official, all questioning whether it's needed at all.
The proposed $128 million Indian Street Bridge across the St. Lucie River has been debated in Martin County, Florida, for more than 20 years. But now that it has been cleared to receive money from the federal government's nearly $800 billion economic stimulus effort, the debate may be over.
--CNN: May 4, 09
The bridge project has been a topic of local debate for decades according to CNN's report. Now state leaders are apparently using stimulus funds to push it forward. If you follow the link you can find video of traffic flowing smoothly over the existing bridge at the height of rush hour. In my personal experience, growing up in the Chicago suburbs, building more bridges and roads doesn't solve congestion anyway: more roads = more cars.
In this instance our effort to stimulate the economy goes against the effort to stop changing the climate. An new bridge that many locals don't even want will just stimulate CO2 pollution.
(2)
So the water infrastructure is where the federal stimulus came in. According to Rein's story in the Post, the town government rushed to request $18 million in federal stimulus funds to build a wastewater treatment plant for the development. The project "narrowly missed the cut this year but rose to No. 1 on [Maryland's] waiting list for stimulus funding. If another project dropped out, Trappe East would rise to the approved list."
--NRDC Switchboard: May 12, 09
NRDC argues that this is just one case of a larger problem. Rather than using stimulus money that should, in my opinion, be targeted for repairing and improving existing infrastructure local governments are caving to developers who want new infrastructure for expanding sprawl. As NRDC notes, there's pretty much no public transportation and no jobs in the town where this new development is being planned. Who's going to live there? DC commuters. And, surely, with expanding sprawl will come demand for new roads and highways.
So again, we're subsidizing CO2 pollution. Terrific. This sort of thing is exactly what I feared when I kept hearing the "shovel ready" mantra as the stimulus bill was being pushed through. So, I give Obama a B overall and realize he's trying to balance a lot of issues. From what I've seen so far I give a C- on the stimulus in particular and a D on climate issues: "FAIL" was a bit of title-grab hyperbole.
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To get an A, we need to stop changing the climate starting now and to keep that in mind in every choice that's made. I'm not seeing anything like the top-to-bottom focus on that goal that needs to happen.
Here's what President Obama said about stimulus waste:
WASHINGTON - Invoking his own name-and-shame policy, President Barack Obama warned the nation's mayors on Friday that he will "call them out" if they waste the money from his massive economic stimulus plan.
"The American people are watching," Obama told a gathering of mayors at the White House. "They need this plan to work. They expect to see the money that they've earned — they've worked so hard to earn — spent in its intended purposes without waste, without inefficiency, without fraud."
--MSNBC: Feb. 20, 09
Let's hear it.