Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

As the new administration in Washington faces down this country’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, one of its first significant acts will be figuring out how to deploy the proposed federal stimulus package — whatever shape it ultimately takes.

When he was still president-elect, Barack Obama’s transition team asked IBM for thoughts on this. Our recommendation emphasized transformational investments in smarter infrastructure as the best way to create new jobs and stimulate growth.

Texas also stands to benefit from such an approach.

As the bill stands, Texas would get $2.3 billion for highways, $370 million for transit and $277 million for clean-water projects. A portion of federal funds is also slated specifically for our neck of the woods, going to North Texas public schools, highway projects and public transit.

These are extremely important areas, and Texas should do everything it can to use these funds wisely. But there are other transformational initiatives in the legislation that will help prepare Texas to compete in the 21st century, and we shouldn’t be shy about pursuing them.

Consider the issue of our country’s electric grids. They’re in dire need of an upgrade, and this is a major focus of the stimulus bill. Making an electric grid "smart," with things like digital sensors and advanced analytics, has many advantages. For utilities, it makes it easier to detect outages and integrate cleaner, renewable energy sources.

Meanwhile, consumers can manage their energy consumption more effectively because they get a better sense of their usage and how it affects their costs. For Texans, that’s a pretty important benefit. Homeowners in Dallas and Houston had the highest average utility bills in the country last year, according to one recent report.

Smart-grid funding is complemented nicely in the federal stimulus legislation by $8 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy projects such as wind power.

One thing we’ve got a lot of in Texas is wind. In 2007, the U.S. wind industry grew by 45 percent, and over half of that growth came from Texas. We produce more wind power than any other state, and second place is not even close. Texas accounts for almost one-third of the nation’s total installed wind capacity. That’s the equivalent of the electricity needed to power more than 1 million Texas homes.

Imagine what that would mean for Fort Worth residents if Texas could get federal funding for wind transmission projects so that more of the wind power generated in West Texas, where most of the wind farms are located, could make its way to the Metroplex and other parts of the state.

Clean coal is another thing we heard a lot about during the 2008 campaign, and it’s included in the bill, too, in the form of $2.4 billion set aside to develop technology to capture and store carbon dioxide emitted by coal power plants.

Texas could play a major role here as well. Many of our oil companies have developed methods to store carbon dioxide, which they use to inject into aging wells to produce more oil. For this reason, some geologists think Texas could become a national laboratory for carbon storage.

It’s exciting to think about what investments in renewable energy and other smarter infrastructure projects could mean for Texas. And there are many other initiatives in the stimulus bill that will help prepare us to compete in the global economy, including improving healthcare technology systems and expanding broadband access to rural areas.

The list of things that need to be addressed is long. But if we play our cards right, Texas could be a leader on the nation’s path to economic renewal.

Bruce Church is IBM’s senior executive for Dallas.