WASHINGTON — As Congress gets to work this week on an economic
stimulus plan, environmentalists are arguing that installing
more wind and solar energy, making homes and government
buildings less dependent on fossil fuels and expanding mass
transit would be the best way to add jobs quickly and jolt the
economy. Environmental groups cheered last week when President-
elect Barack Obama said the U.S. should use the stimulus package
to double its production of renewable energy in three years and
cut its use of fossil fuels by modernizing more than 75 percent
of federal buildings and improving the energy efficiency of 2
million homes. The questions now, however, are whether Obama's
plan will sail through Congress or clash with other interests,
and whether environmentalists will be able to use the recovery
package to press other of their ideas, including installing
solar panels on school roofs and spending money on mass transit
instead of new highways. Indeed, shifting money away from
highway construction to other tr