From our Reader who’s watching this closely …
The stimulus bill gives the Secretary of the Energy Department the power to guarantee about $100 billion of loans to alternative energy projects. While this pales in comparison to guarantees given to many banks, and definitely in comparison to the $7.5 trillion of debt guaranteed by Treasury, FDIC and the Fed over last year, still this ability to get alternative energy investing across the valley of death now faced by the sector is hugely important as a green job creation mechanism and a major step toward energy independence and climate change abatement. Hat’s off to Chris Van Hollen and Ed Markey and other members of Congress — if the Energy Secretary has the freedom to administer the guarantees in a commercially reasonable way.
