Filed under , by Ira Sager on June 30
The U.S. economy still needs a boost, but the discussion of how the government is spending taxpayers’ money to stimulate growth has moved to another BusinessWeek blog. Please go to our Money & Politics blog for our continuing coverage.
Filed under Green Energy, by Peter Elstrom on June 8
Interesting story in the New York Times today. It explains that the federal government is changing its emphasis in weatherizing homes. It is allocating a greater share of the stimulus money to keeping homes in hot regions cool than in the past, and a smaller share to keeping homes in cold regions warm. Now, 31% of total spending will go to hot-climate states, instead of the 16% that has been allocated in past years.
The Times asks some provocative questions, including whether the reallocation was a political decision to win more support from Southern politicians. But it didn't really deliver on the key question: Which spending strategy will have the better pay off this time?
Continue reading "Hot or Cold? How Best To Save Energy Dollars"
Filed under Green Energy, by Stephen Baker on June 1
I was talking with Jeffrey Taft, the lead architect for smart grids at Accenture. He came up with a literary description for the digital data pouring through electrical networks. In traditional dumb grids, he said, create enough data every second to fill Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities (a book most of us could read on a rainy day). A smart grid, by contrast, generates 846 copies of Tolstoy's War and Peace.
I couldn't find in a quick search how many words those two books have. I've progressed over the last decade to thinking of data in terms of songs, and not text. But in any case, smart grids produce loads of data. Taft is helping to lead an ambitious pilot "intelligent city" project in Boulder, Colo.
The challenge, he says, is to "manage that data and transform it into information through analytics. That's the key problem with smart grids. It's the info management problem where all the grief is."
In the short term, most of the smarts will be focused on finding outages and other problems, and responding to them quickly and with laser focus. This might mean that a few houses will be dark, instead of an entire neighborhood. Eventually, the Accenture team hopes to study the patterns of outages, spot problems before they develop, and take preemptive action.
The Boulder project, which is in its final stage of deployment, also will provide lots more information to consumers about their energy use. Here's betting that Boulder, with its green and highly educated population, will put this info to use and consume electricity more wisely.
The Boulder project is a bid by Xcel Energy to create a green and scalable next-gen utility. Implementation should be done by the end of June, Taft says. They'll have an idea about the business case by the end of the year.
Filed under Jobs, by Peter Elstrom on May 14
President Obama has set high expectations for the creation of new jobs from his $787 billion stimulus plan. As U. S. companies have shed millions of positions, Obama has said that he hopes the program will result in three to four million new jobs.
But how will taxpayers know whether they're getting their money's worth? How will we know which jobs are created or saved by the stimulus program, as opposed to the hiring that employers do on their own? The Council of Economic Advisers just released its explanation of how it will keep track for the Administration.
Filed under Infrastructure, by Peter Elstrom on May 12
The Associated Press has a nice enterprise story on stimulus spending. The story's bottom line: The places hardest hit by job losses are getting the least out of the transportation spending.
The AP reviewed 5,500 planned transportation projects with an estimated cost of $18.9 billion. It found that states are planning to spend 50% more per person in the communities with the lowest unemployment compared to those with the highest unemployment. One example cited:
Elk County, Pa., isn't receiving any road money despite its 13.8 percent unemployment rate. Yet the military and college community of Riley County, Kan., with 3.4 percent unemployment, will benefit from about $56 million to build a highway, improve an intersection and restore a historic farmhouse.
The story generated sharp responses, including from businesses involved in the stimulus projects. The Associated General Contractors of America quickly issued a rebuttal:
The U.S. economy needs a big boost—and the Obama government is preparing to spend billions of taxpayers’ money to stimulate growth. Which projects make the most sense for America? Discussions on this blog, Twitter, and Ning will feed coverage in BusinessWeek, both in print and online.
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