Policy Monitor<break/>A Preliminary Assessment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's Clean Energy Package<xref ref-type="fn" rid="res014-FN1">-super-1</xref>

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included more than $90 billion in strategic clean energy investments intended to promote job creation and deployment of low-carbon technologies. In terms of spending, the clean energy package has been described as the nation's "biggest energy bill in history." This article provides a preliminary assessment of the Recovery Act's clean energy package through a review of the act's rationale, design, and implementation. The article first surveys the policy principles for a clean energy stimulus and describes the process of crafting the clean energy package during the 2008--9 presidential transition. Then the article reviews the initial employment, economic activity, and energy outcomes associated with these energy investments, and it provides a more detailed case study of the Recovery Act's support for renewable power through grants and loan guarantees. The article concludes with a discussion of lessons learned.(JEL: E61, Q48, Q54) Copyright 2013, Oxford University Press.