Ed. —I would like to welcome the participation of the Environmental and
Energy Study Institute on Hill Heat. EESI was founded in 1984 by a
bipartisan group of members of Congress concerned about energy and
environmental issues. Their initial series of guest posts will be drawn
from their briefings on the president’s proposed FY 2009 budget.
The President’s FY 2009 Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) budget request remains relatively flat compared
to the FY 2008 request and is down slightly
from FY 2008 appropriations. The
FY 2009 budget request is $7.14 billion,
which is $56.9 million (0.80%) less than the FY
2008 budget request and $330 million (4.4%) less than
FY 2008 appropriations.
The President’s FY 2009 budget request for
Clean Air and Global Climate Change (EPA Goal 1) is $939 million. This
is $33 million (3.4%) less than the FY
2008 appropriations.
Looking at the EPA budget by goals, the
Reduced Greenhouse Gas Intensity program within Goal 1 has a
FY 2009 budget request of $121 million, which
is $9.0 million (6.9%) less than the FY
2008 appropriations of $130 million and $1.7 million (1.4%)
less than the FY 2008 budget request of $123
million.
Looking at the EPA budget by program and
project, the FY 2009 budget request for
Climate Protection programs includes a Science and Technology component,
requested at $11.4 million, and an Environmental Program and Management
component, requested at $87.0 million. Taken together, these were cut
$10.3 million (9.5%) from FY 08
appropriations. The Climate Protection Programs include Energy Star,
SmartWay Transport, the Methane to Markets Partnership and Asia-Pacific
Partnership. There were a number of cuts, as well as a few increases to
the programs, as illustrated below:
Climate Protection Programs
- $10.3 million cut overall (9.5% cut from FY
08 appropriations)
- Zeroing out the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Registry (100% cut
from $3.4 million in FY 08)
- $6.9 million cut in Climate Science and Technology program (38%
cut from FY 08 appropriations)
- $4.0 million cut in Energy STAR (8.3%
cut from FY 08 appropriations)
- $177,000 increase in Methane to Markets (4.1% increase from
FY 08 appropriations)
- $5.0 million increase in Asian Pacific Partnership (no previous
FY 08 appropriation amount)
Clean Air Rules
Clean Air Rules are a major component of EPA’s
Clean Air and Global Climate Change Goal, and include the Clean Air
Interstate Rule, the Clean Air Mercury Rule and the Clean Air Nonroad
Diesel Rule. These rules work towards the improvement of the United
State’s air quality. Additionally, reductions on particulate matter from
diesel engines will continue to be addressed through the Diesel
Emissions Reduction Grants program of the Energy Policy Act of 2005
(P.L. 109-58), which authorizes $200 million annually (2007-2011).
However, the President requests just $49.2 million for the
FY 09 EPA Clean Diesel grant, 25% of the
authorized amount.
A table reviewing changes in the Goal I and overall
EPA budget is below the jump.