The Energy and Interior departments received light shaves under President Trump’s budget proposal issued Thursday.
The Energy Department budget would be cut by $1.7 billion, dropping from $29.7 billion to $28 billion in the fiscal 2018 budget. That equals a 6 percent reduction from fiscal 2017.
The budget prioritizes basic science research and maintenance of the agency’s role in overseeing the nation’s nuclear arsenal, which makes up nearly half of its budget. It also devotes $120 million to restart development of the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, which former President Barack Obama had tried for years to kill.
Trump would kill off the agency’s loan guarantee and advanced research programs, which have been big Republican targets. The budget eliminates the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, the Title 17 Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program and the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program “because the private sector is better positioned to finance disruptive energy research and development and to commercialize innovative technologies,” the budget blueprint says.
The budget keeps intact the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program office, which many Democrats feared would be eliminated, but limits its focus to “early stage applied energy research and development activities where the federal role is stronger,” it said. It also terminates a number of state programs, such as the Weatherization Assistance Program and the State Energy Program “to reduce federal intervention in state-level energy policy and implementation,” according to the budget proposal. “Collectively, these changes achieve a savings of approximately $2 billion,” it read.
Compared to the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, which received major cuts of 29 percent and 31 percent, respectively, the Energy Department got off easy.
The proposal released Thursday is only a blueprint, the White House says, with the full budget coming in May. Congress must approve the budget request.
Interior also received a comparatively light reduction in its budget, but still much higher deeper than the Energy Department. The agency that runs the nation’s national parks and oversees energy development on federal lands would see a 12 percent cut, moving from $13.2 billion in fiscal 2017 to $11.6 in fiscal 2018, according to the budget blueprint released Thursday.
The budget “strengthens the nation’s energy security” by increasing funding for Interior’s programs that “support environmentally responsible development of energy on public lands and offshore waters,” the proposal read. “Combined with administrative reforms already in progress, this would allow [the agency] to streamline permitting processes and provide industry with access to the energy resources America needs, while ensuring taxpayers receive a fair return from the development of these public resources.”
It also hacks away at National Wildlife Refuge fund payments to local governments “that are duplicative of other payment programs,” it read.
Both the Energy and Interior departments will be key agencies in meeting Trump’s energy, infrastructure and even military goals. Nearly half of the Energy Department’s budget goes to nuclear weapons development and overseeing the nation’s nuclear arsenal. Its military role may have spared it more serious proposed cuts.
Trump is looking to beef up military spending by $54 billion, funneling the money away from other agencies to feed the Defense Department.
