Green Energy Scores Big In Obama’s Stimulus Plan (NPR, Jan 27, 2009)
Topic: Renewable Energy
Category: Mainstream Journalistic
What Is It? An NPR story that describes the green energy components of Obama’s stimulus plan, and how the money is going to be put to use. Weatherizing homes, building transmission lines for renewable electricity sources, and increasing tax credits for green energy use and implementation are some of the goals that may jump start the economy while increasing energy efficiency.
Author: Christopher Joyce
Accessed: Mar 11, 2009
Audience/Agenda: National Public Radio is a noncommercial, nonprofit radio show distributor and producer that specializes in news and talk. They distribute original content to more than 850 local affiliates, and have an audience of over 26 million people in the United States. NPR is supported by its listeners and is considered a liberal leaning medium, although that is largely a reflection of its audience.
Usefulness: The stimulus plan could help or hurt renewable energy because Obama has been extremely optimistic about the “green economy” and its role in mitigating recession effects. If the attempt to make our economy sustainable fails, even due to problems unrelated to renewable energy, public and private opinion will likely turn against this new technology. This could hinder further research and development. If the plan works in a relatively short period, the country will be poised to reform our entire economy to not depend on a finite natural resource that fluctuates unexpectedly in price.
Filed under: Journalistic, Source Notes
