Green spending and stimulus: Curiously slow

The energy secretary continues to show his frustration THE economy is wobbly, oil prices are rising and voters have climate change on their minds. What better, surely, than a “green stimulus”? Barack Obama duly set aside some $39 billion of February’s $787 billion stimulus bill for the Department of Energy, hoping to create lots of sustainable, high-tech “green jobs”. Steven Chu, the secretary of energy, was in Iowa on June 22nd to announce $16m in spending—soon to grow to $40m—on green fuels and energy efficiency there. “I want to shove this money out the door as quickly as possible,” said the secretary. And well he might. Just $5.8 billion of that $39 billion had been allocated as of June 19th. The department is trying hard to spend the cash faster, and has since then made a flurry of announcements (see article). Why has spending money proved so hard, when the whole point of the stimulus was to jolt the economy quickly? One problem is ... (link)