Monday, March 16, 2009

Stimulus: Let the Rewiring Begin!

Good grief. I hit the send button* on the picture before putting in the e2t post that I meant to append it to. Sorry feedreaders.

Clinton and Gore Pulling Cable: White House Photo Office

HatTip on the photo link: Popular Science.
From earth2tech:

Smart-Grid Companies in 'Feeding Frenzy' Over Stimulus

President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package has put cleantech companies in “a feeding frenzy,” says Jesse Berst, managing director of research firm Global Smart Energy. He recently told us that lobbying has become “intense” as utilities and technology vendors form partnerships and coalitions to better position themselves to get a bite of the funds.

He cites one company that has even created a stimulus menu, with pricing based on the anticipated stimulus grants. “It says you can get 10,000 of these or 5,000 of these, and these options will create X number of jobs,” he says.

You can expect more to come. “There’s going to be a real PR war, because for every pot of money out there, people are going to try to label themselves [as being eligible for it],” Berst says. Aside from the $11 billion set aside specifically for “smart grid” technologies, some of those companies may also be eligible to vie for billions in weatherization funds, as well as $500 million slated for green jobs.

But the package has shined a spotlight on smart-grid technologies that is far brighter than the money alone, Berst says. “It made people realize that here is the next place to be,” he says. “It’s really stimulating this far beyond the value of the money … even before a single dollar’s been spent.”>>>MORE
*Known is the biz as a "fat-finger" trade. Here's a recent case where "fat fingers" were denied as the cause:
UBS in $31bn bond order mistake
...'Fat finger' denial

According to reports, a UBS Securities Japan employee had been trying to buy 30 million yen of bonds in computer games firm Capcom, but because of a computer error, 3 trillion yen's worth was ordered instead.

UBS has insisted that the mistake was not human error - sometimes described as a "fat finger" mistake where a worker types in the wrong number....