There is plenty to look forward to in the proposed economic stimulus bill, including a focus on renewable energy and retrofitting government buildings for our.... There is plenty to look forward to in the proposed economic stimulus bill, including a focus on renewable energy and retrofitting government buildings for our more green future. Some say investing in renewable energy sources that can't compete on a dollar-cost basis with fossil fuels. Yet, even if they don't now, they will.

What worries me is the potential for massive road-building projects that will serve to exacerbate sprawl and encourage the burning of fossil fuels. As it stands, about four times as much will be invested in roads as transit.

Every economic analysis I encounter has the price of oil heading back up--the reduced prices of recent times bring brought on by our severe economic recession. More, dense urban environments mean a person living in the same amount of space in a city uses half the energy of a similar person in the auto-oriented suburbs. The energy savings are in actuality greater because the average person in a city lives with fewer square feet that someone in the suburbs. The future may place enormous pressure on communities to increase density, limiting if not eliminating the automobile as a convenient and efficient means of transportation.

With global warming at our doorstep, does it make sense to spend all this money building roads to the past? Let's talk about alternative energy and alternative transportation and get the most out of the economic stimulus.