By Melanie Condon
President Obama has spent much of his presidency touting the necessity for climate change control and pollution reductions, so it comes as no surprise that his budget request released Monday reflects this ideology.
Overall, the president’s budget request for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rose from past years with a significant portion focused on helping states meet requirements for greenhouse gas emission reduction.
Within the president’s budget was a request for $4 billion to support a new “Clean Power State Incentive Fund” aimed at encouraging states to increase their emissions reduction. Money in the fund would be disbursed to states that achieve early emission reduction targets or exceed their emission goals under the Clean Power Plan.
States can use the money from the incentive fund to invest in different activities that “complement and advance the Clean Power Plan," such as supporting private sector energy efficiency measures and controlling pollution in low-income communities. This fund would be administered by EPA and, as proposed, would not be subject to sequestration. In addition to this fund, the president’s budget also includes $239 million to support the administration’s climate agenda and a separate $25 million to help states comply with the proposed greenhouse gas emissions rules for power plants.
Not every area of EPA’s budget grew in the 2016 budget proposal. To provide more support for the Climate Action Plan initiatives, other areas of the agency were reduced. Unfortunately, a portion of these reductions came from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which help states and local communities pay for clean drinking water and waste management projects. NCSL has long been a proponent of the federal government providing necessary funding for these programs.
Keeping on his climate-protection theme, the president’s budget also requested a total of $7.4 billion for clean energy technology research and development, deployment efforts, and energy efficiency methods across various federal agencies, not just the Department of Energy. This includes renewable energy development and disaster preparedness proposals.
The budget took a close look at tax incentives elsewhere in the energy sector world. While the budget proposes a permanent extension for both the wind and solar production tax credits, it also reduces certain tax credits for the fossil fuel industry. The president also has proposed increased inspections and oversight by the Bureau of Land Management on oil and gas production activities.
The environment and energy portions of the president’s budget have received expected reactions from both parties, and we wait to see how many—if any— of these proposals will be included in a concurrent budget resolution that the House and Senate will aim to release this spring.
Melanie Condon is a policy specialist for NCSL's Natural Resources and Infrastructure Committee in the Washington, D.C. office.
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