An environmental stimulus bill could help us bounce back from COVID-19
Investing in renewable energy research could be a big part of a post-COVID stimulus plan (Unsplash/)Last week, Congress approved a $2 trillion emergency relief bill to ease some of the effects of COVID-19 on the American economy. But this is just the start of recovering the economy after the pandemic; economists project that we might be heading into a major depression, and one estimate of future unemployment rates tops 30 percent.Meanwhile, the climate crisis hasn’t gone anywhere. Emissions may have gone down a bit as factories closed and people stayed at home, but that means little if we simply return to the status quo. In fact, we could even see progress on climate scaled back. Last week, the EPA announced it was easing penalties for polluters affected by the COVID-19 response; while the order is described as temporary, some are worried about it amounting to an open-ended relaxation of environmental...