Environmental Watch

When President Obama was elected last year, cities began looking at ways to spend the expected stimulus money on "shovel ready" projects in their community. In Seattle's requests submitted to the US Conference of Mayors, they listed two projects to add solar panels to local projects costing a total of $8.2 million. This month's Environmental Watch examines those projects and finds that not only were the projects not "shovel ready," but that in one case the cost estimates were padded and in the other the solar project paid for itself only after 40 years and millions in government subsidies. Worse, internal e-mails show that the top priority appears to be scoring political points rather than actually supporting projects that help the environment. It is a cautionary tale of what happens when government spends money without an eye to the costs and benefits of the projects they advocate.

Read the full Environmental Watch