Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act

While the nation grapples with wars overseas and health care reform at home, climate change legislation is steadily making its way through Congress. The House of Representatives already passed a climate package; the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works passed their own legislation, dubbed the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.

The legislation would create a cap and trade program targeted at greenhouse gas emissions, push forward carbon capture and storage research, and appropriate funds for a variety of climate and energy-related work at EPA, the Department of Energy, and other agencies. The Congressional Budget Office just completed a cost estimate of the bill to determine budget and deficit impacts. The estimate, worth reading in its entirety here, finds the bill would:

• Increase federal revenues by about $854 billion; and
• Increase direct spending by about $833 billion.

In total, those changes would reduce budget deficits (or increase future surpluses) by about $21 billion over the 2010-2019 period. (All estimated effects would be on-budget.) In years after 2019, direct spending would be less than the net revenues attributable to the legislation in each of the 10-year periods following 2019. Therefore, CBO estimates that enacting S. 1733 would not increase the deficit in any of the four 10-year periods following 2019.

Has the Stimulus Package Worked?

Has the stimulus package worked? It's a question that many inside and outside of government have been asking for a long time. It will likely be some time before anyone is able to say with minimal uncertainty. That said, a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has attempted to provide an answer, at least in terms of job creation. There is still significant uncertainty, however.

The CBO writes in its report (PDF available here):

Recipients report that about 640,000 jobs were created or retained with ARRA funding through September 2009. Such reports, however, do not provide a comprehensive estimate of the law’s impact on employment in the United States. That impact may be higher or lower than the reported number for several reasons (in addition to any issues about the quality of the data in the reports).

Another resource on the stimulus package is this excellent overview (PDF) of fiscal stimulus policy by the Congressional Research Service.