Quote for the Stimulus

Under the European Union's 'stimulus' plan, Member States will decide how to arrange their spending mostly by themselves, with a little bit of common spending through the EU. Here's a thought for those at a loss as to how to spend:

Energy efficiency measures have, enabled California households to redirect their expenditures toward other goods and services, creating about 1.5 million FTE jobs with a total payroll of $45 billion, driven by well-documented household energy savings of $56 billion from 1972-2006.

As a result of energy efficiency, California reduced its energy import dependence and directed a greater percentage of its consumption to instate, employment-intensive goods and services, whose supply chains also largely reside within the state, creating a “multiplier” effect of job generation.

The economic benefits of energy efficiency innovation have a compounding effect. [...] It is reasonable to assume that the marginal efficiency gains will be more costly, but they have more intensive economic growth benefits.

From a recent CERES study (.pdf), also featured in the New York Times.