Presidents Budget Reveals Much About Energy Priorities

Budgets are a critical part of making public policy, and the budget request President Obama sent to Congress last week reveals a great deal about the administration's priorities when it comes to energy.

See the President's Budget Request Here

While the president offers a paragraph of explanation in his introductory letter about his budget's energy spending, the numbers say quite a bit more. Consider, for example, that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gets a 5% budget bump from 2015 levels, pouring an additional 450 million into the agency's regulatory efforts. According to an analysis by POWER Magazine, "this includes 1.1 billion for clean air and climate change efforts, and 528 million to evaluate environmental and heath effects related to air pollution, water quality, and climate change."

Also receiving a budgetary raise is the Department of Energy (DOE), which would receive a 9% raise from this year's spending level. The total department budget is just under 30 billion. While fossil and nuclear research and development programs would get nominal raises of less than 10%, DOE's spending in energy efficiency and renewable energy would increase more than 40%. The administration's priority, at least as reflected by its budget, is clearly to spend more on newer sources of power and less on traditional sources that continue to provide the bulk of American power generation.

In fact, the administration's budget cuts funding for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by 27.3 million, resulting in the slashing of 140 full-time positions at the commission that regulates nuclear power facilities. At a time when other nations are investing in nuclear generation (even Japan, site of the Fukushima disaster), the administration's budget request signals that U.S. policy is going in the opposite direction.

On the other hand, the president's energy budget includes 100 million for new renewable energy project licensing for the Department of the Interior. It also would make permanent the generous federal subsidy of wind and solar power, while eliminating 4.5 billion in tax breaks, credits, and deductions for coal mining and oil and gas production. In other word, if the president's budget is approved, federal policy will continue to stack the deck in favor of renewable power sources.

Rounding out the budget's energy focus is new spending on the EPA's effort to restrict carbon dioxide emission, known as the Clean Power Plan. The budget would create a new 4 billion incentive fund for states that reduce carbon dioxide emission beyond their mandated goals, as well as devote 1.29 billion to the Global Climate Change Initiative.

Budgets can tell us a lot about where public policy is headed. More spending on renewable power sources that are capable of providing only a fraction of our power needs. Less investment in reliable sources of energy that have kept power prices low. In the end, that direction isn't a good one for consumers or the economy.

"The information used in this blog post comes from a "recent report" from Thomas Overton of POWER Magazine."

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