Universities Wait for Stimulus Bill

This article in Bloomberg describes the various groups of scientists and researchers hoping that the House version of the "stimulus" bill will pass. The bill includes several billion dollars for research into new sources of energy as well as making current systems more efficient. This being the Federal government the bill alone contains a variety of funds for different purposes. One is ARPA-E which is a $400 million program planned to work like the one used to create the internet. There is also a Energy Research Frontier Center program which provide grants for research as well. In all there is over $2 billion of energy funding in the bill. Interestingly the professors and schools acted like any other interest group as they "To press their case for increased energy-research funding, universities and their lobbyists drafted letters and petitions to Obama and sent professors to testify before Congress." Another example of American government at work.