The White House budget director slammed the $35.4 billion Senate spending bill covering the Energy Department, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other agencies Tuesday because it slashes funding for several clean energy programs.
Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan said the proposed cuts in the fiscal 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill would handicap development of clean energy technology needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that most scientists say drive manmade climate change.
“Any strategy that dials down investment in climate solutions and climate preparedness simply dials up the likely future toll on our budget and economy from the impacts of climate change. Yet the bill adopts precisely that strategy,” Donovan wrote in a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss.
Donovan noted the Senate spending bill would cut the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy funding 29 percent below President Obama’s request, down to $790 million. Funding for wind energy research is 68 percent less than what the president requested.
The budget also included cuts to atmospheric modeling used to track changes in greenhouse gas emission concentrations and grid integration and modernization technology that could spur greater introduction of renewable technology onto the bulk power system. It also would fund the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, a basic research program that sets metrics for desired “breakthrough” clean energy technology without prescribing how to achieve them, at $291 million, 10 percent less than Obama’s request.
Instead, the bill prioritizes fossil fuel and nuclear energy research. It includes $6 billion for nuclear waste management, $167 million above current funding. Fossil fuel research would get $610 million, a $39 million increase, and nuclear energy research would get $950 million, a $116 million increase. It also would increase basic research funding to $5.1 billion, the highest level ever.
Most Appropriations Committee Democrats agreed to those terms late last month. Republicans hold the majority in both chambers of Congress and, despite cuts to renewable energy research and an overall 2 percent reduction compared with Obama’s request — though $1.2 billion above current levels — the spending bill the Senate committee advanced to the floor doesn’t contain many of the prickly policy riders present in the House version.
One of those riders blocked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from implementing the Waters of the U.S. rule it rolled out last week with the Environmental Protection Agency. Conservatives say the rule expands federal jurisdiction over waterways, but the administration contends it clarifies existing authority.
“This is irresponsible,” Donovan wrote in April regarding the House rider on Waters of the U.S.
The Senate bill is mum on Waters of the U.S., though committee leaders promised to discuss the regulation when the bill hits the floor. It’s likely that Republican senators will seek an amendment vote that would handcuff or nix the regulation.
While the Senate bill is relatively clean compared with the House version, Donovan said there remain a few “highly problematic” riders. He said one provision would restrict the Energy Department’s ability to spend on information technology needed to improve cybersecurity.
