The Price Of Being Green

After eight years of receiving George W. Bush's cold shoulder, environmentalists are undoubtedly feeling more hopeful under an Obama presidency. Of the $787 billion in the stimulus bill, signed into law by the president on Feb. 17, $32.7 billion was allocated to green initiatives that will mean more environmentally friendly homes and more emphasis on renewable energy like solar and wind. But is the money enough? And at a time when the nation struggles to find its way out of an economic crisis, does it matter? NEWSWEEK's Christina Gillham spoke to Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and coauthor of "Earth: The Sequel," about those issues and why he thinks a green economy can lead us out of the financial crisis. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: EDF has had a lot of influence in getting greener initiatives through legislation. In 1990, for example, you played a role in getting Congress to pass the Clean Air Act, which helped reduce acid rain. More recently, you helped craft legislation for California's 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act. As one of several groups involved, what was your role in shaping the green aspects of the stimulus? Did you meet with the president?
Fred Krupp: We did have conversations with folks on the Hill and with Obama's team, but not with the president himself. We let them know about the research we've done on which technologies result in jobs and wanted them to be aware of the fact that the stimulus could be used in a way that not only keeps America from importing so much oil but also could employ Americans in quite a few of the supply chains for low-carbon, high-efficiency companies.

Is there a segment of the green industry that stands to benefit more from the stimulus package than others?
There's a big emphasis on home weatherization and folks in that business will benefit. Having said that, there are 130 million homes in America and 75 percent of them could be made more energy efficient with a very quick payback. And the recovery package, as good a down payment as it is, really only covers a small fraction of the number of homes that could be profitably retrofitted.

How do you keep people interested in green initiatives and saving the environment at a time when people are concerned about their jobs?
To survive on this planet we have to find ways to do the things we want while putting less carbon pollution into the air. I think people who understand that are going to be the entrepreneurs—small and large—that thrive into the future. One way to engage with people is to let them know that we need to do this for environmental reasons, but we also need to do this to get our economy going again.

How concerned are you that the environment will fall off the priority list of people who are cutting corners and personal budgets and maybe can't afford to "go green" right now?
Going green today means saving green, whether you're a small household, a small business, an electric utility or even a global manufacturer. That's always been true, but it's become a big focus lately for companies looking for smarter and more profitable ways of doing business. General Electric, for example, has saved $100 million in energy costs since 2005 through water-saving and carbon-reducing initiatives. We've found that companies are missing huge savings in annual operating costs, so we're training MBA students as energy-efficiency experts and embedding them in companies to find cost-effective improvements. It's been a huge success.

You've said that a cap and trade system, which aims to curb carbon-dioxide emissions through economic incentives, will produce hundreds of thousands of jobs. How so?
When we make the energy high efficiency, low carbon, we can create all types of jobs—jobs that weatherize homes that create dollars that stay here instead of going overseas to pay for imported oil. We can create jobs that produce the materials for weatherization, we can create jobs to make wind turbines and install them. It's not only high-tech jobs we're creating, it's a tremendous number of jobs in existing, familiar businesses.