Whither the Green?
Several months ago my friend Shari Shapiro wrote a blog post Green Building Litigation--Whither the Lawsuits? Now many builders across the nation are wondering whither the green? An article by the Wall Street Journal, Green Builders Await the Green sheds light on a problem that those of us involved in the green building industry have been acutely aware of for some time...the government is dragging its feet on disbursing the green earmarked for green projects. The General Services Administration was allocated 5.5 Billion dollars under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 2 Billion dollars of which was supposed to be distributed by the end of 2009. Now only two weeks away from the end of the year only 1.5 Billion of that 2 Billion dollars has been distributed! Even more striking, only 89 million dollars has been paid out thus far! So what exactly is taking so long for the green to reach the pipeline?
Are you a contractor who is vying for a part of the 4 Billion dollars that have yet to be allocated? Will 2010 see an explosion of green growth as project currently in the planning stage progress to construction? Will 2010 be the year of green litigation?
