Still hearing a huge lack of imagination on the Stimulus packages being considered.

One proposal for a stimulus package is to pay people to take training in green jobs- installing solar panels, insulation and other "negawatt" drilling- Generating new energy by slowing the massive energy waste that most folks don't even notice.

There is a demand driven approach, and was used very successfully in Germany.  The idea was that entrepeneurs will beat a path to your door if they see a profit in it.  Contractors don't need to be told how to get training for a skill they need.  If they see huge dollar signs from installing wind turbines and solar panels for businesses- by golly they will figure out how to get into that racket. 

What Germany did was guarantee that electricity would be purchased at a high enough price that they could make money like crazy, and banks would quickly approve loans for the panels/ wind turbines. 

Under this scheme, the incentive program would provide federal low interest loans for alternative energy systems, mandate that all utilities must buy excess energy from homes and businesses, and set a minimum rate that they must be paid. 

There would be a resulting boom in construction spread everywhere in the US.  Unlike other mega projects such as the National Energy Transmission Grid, or federal guarantee of loans for solar and wind farms, this stimulus would reach everywhere in America.  Note that Germany has the higher penetration of solar than the US, and they on average receive less sun than Anchorage, Alaska.