There's a lot of green in going green

It's deja vu all over again. I was working in the Agriculture Library in the late 1970s-early 1980s and have seen all the green economy, save-the-environment stuff before. In its newer, pantheistic version, it's a phenomenal building boon for state legislators, contractors, architects, and engineers. A huge green snow-ball, if you will. My husband's architectural and construction magazines are so deep into green it's crazy. It has created huge new investment and employment opportunities, much of it for the same corporations and industries that gave us the pollution! The proposed e-regs mostly benefit the largest companies which is why you see the heavy investment in Democratic candidates. Here's an item from Ohio State University's "News and Information"

The Ohio State University Medical Center has made a commitment to incorporate sustainable technologies, including energy conservation, into a $1 billion master plan for campus expansion. The EPA’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory has provided funding to enable the medical center to track non-financial benefits such as greenhouse gas reduction, research productivity and community well being.

This will create a whole new cottage industry on campus and Washington measuring, reporting and publishing "non-financial benefits" of going green. A real feel-good opportunity for the folks in the social sciences who have probably been feeling under-fulfilled and unsatisfied on the Al Gorgasmic scale of experiences.