..."stimulus" and "investment" this way:

--stimulus is the sort of short-term spending you do in a recession to immediately create economic demand. the spending needs to impact the economy as quickly as possible, and it should be large enough to have a substantial economic effect (a mistake, according to paul krugman, that caught up obama in his march '09 stimulus bill). this is the classic "fix the roads, fix the sewers" kind of spending.

--investment spending occurs over a period of years or decades and is not related to the emergent needs of the economy. instead, the investment is intended to have a long-term impact on the economy. that is the sort of spending that is represented by rebuilding the electrical grid into a "smart" grid and the installation of all that other new green energy infrastructure. the long lead times required for this sort of spending make it less favorable for use as an emergency stimulus for the economy--even though this is exactly what we need going forward.

as for the tva and bpa references: the idea was to demonstrate that there is precedent for the federal government owning generation, transmission, and distribution assets. there is no reason why those can't be green assets, such as windmills--and there is no reason, in the end, why we should subsidize some company's desire to sell us expensive green power when we can own inexpensive green power that we sell ourselves.

 
the types of projects you're talking about either involve siting energy generation at a physical place or creating the physical infrastructure to make that happen...or creating the bureaucratic infrastructure to lend or grant the money to build the same infrastructure.

all of that is not anything like approving a paving project or a bridge rehabilitation or a project to replace sewer pipe.

for example, to site a new windmill project will require an environmental impact statement or a determination of non-significance, the applicant will have to go back and modify any plans to satisfy community concerns, financing has to be put in place--and if that financing is going to come from the government an office will have to be opened, regulations will have to be promulgated, and applications have to be evaluated first.

geothermal siting is more complicated and requires more mitigation (http://www.powerscorecard.org/tech_detail.... ) including resolving the issue of how to treat the water used onsite.

building a windmill factory is even more complicated, if you're building on empty land. if you're looking to use existing facilities, there are still the issues of raising capital, acquiring technology, setting up a supply chain, putting together the actual assembly line, and hiring the people you'll need.

all of that means these projects are not economic stimulus projects as much as they are long-term investment programs...which means even if the obama administration is moving at full speed we shouldn't expect to see real results for at least two to three years--and maybe several more before anything really cranks up to full speed.