Environment Feels the Pinch in Bush Budget

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, February 4, 2003 (ENS) - The $2.2 trillion budget released Monday by the Bush administration includes $30.4 billion for safeguarding and managing the nation's environment and natural resources. While this represents an increase of about $1 billion over last year's request, many conservationists and Congressional Democrats believe the details of the president's budget reflect an administration determined to roll back environmental protections and further open public lands to oil, gas and mining companies.

President Bush prepares his State of the Union address last month, in which he previewed his budget priorities. (White House Photo by Eric Draper)

But critics, including Senator Kent Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota, said the president's budget is "breathtaking in its lack of fiscal discipline," including a host of payoffs for special interests while slashing funding for environmental protection and enforcement.

"Special interests are still in the saddle and still ride this administration," said Wesley Warren, senior fellow for environmental economics at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "They are continuing their story of hostility to environmental protection."

Administration officials worked to counter this charge in a slew of press briefings Monday, promoting the president's environmental agenda and highlighting his budget priorities. The heads of the three agencies with primary oversight of the nation's environmental and natural resource programs - the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Interior - shared the stage at a briefing to tout the administration's environmental record and policies.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, and EPA Administrator Christie Whitman join in support of the Bush administration's budget proposal on Monday. (Photo courtesy USDA)

Veneman, along with EPA Administrator Christie Whitman and Interior Secretary Gale Norton, explained that the overall budget reflects the administration's focus on cutting power plant emissions, reducing the threat of forest fires and cleaning up hazardous waste sites.

"A budget is not just a spending plan; it is truly a policy document," said Whitman. "This proposed budget reflects our priorities for the agency, our commitment to building strong partnerships, our belief in strong science, and our determination to leave America's air cleaner, its water purer, and its land better protected than we found it."

EPA Faces Meager Increase

But Whitman's agency is one that will have to more with less. The EPA faces one of the smallest increases of any federal agency - the president's request of $7.63 billion to fund the federal government's key agency for the protection of the nation's air, water and land, is just $10 million more than last year's request.

Whitman says the EPA budget request strengthens the agency's core operating programs for air, water, land and enforcement activities.

EPA Administrator Christie Whitman (Photo courtesy EPA)

The Bush administration has long been a vocal advocate of granting states additional flexibility to enforce environmental regulations, but this year it is pushing for further reductions in financial assistance for those enforcement efforts. Under the Bush plan, $350 million in cuts to the EPA's budget will come largely from state and tribal assistance grants.

The $3.12 billion request for state and tribal assistance cuts funding for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund by some $362 million from the 2003 request. This money has previously been targeted to build and upgrade sewage plants. There are small increases for state grants to monitor non-point source pollution and pesticide enforcement.

Whitman stressed the president's commitment to the administration's Clear Skies initiative, which she said will reduce power plant air emissions by some 70 percent over the next decade. The budget earmarks $7.7 million to support the initiative, which has been sharply criticized by environmental groups and some Congressional Democrats because it does not target carbon dioxide emissions.

The budget would boost the EPA's air toxics program by $7 million, money that will be doled out in state grants to improve measurements of air toxic exposure. Funding for Superfund cleanups is increased in the Bush budget by some $150 million, Whitman added.

But this drew immediate anger from some in Congress, including California Senator Barbara Boxer.

"This is more smoke and mirrors by an administration that has dangerously weakened this successful program," said Boxer, a Democrat. "Taking into account inflation, the so called 'increase' is closer to $90 million over last year. And taking into account that EPA funded only 65 percent of site requests last year, the bottom line is that there will be even fewer sites adequately funded in 2004's budget."

"What makes this announcement even more egregious is what the Administrator forgot to mention - this so called 'new' money is not coming from polluters, but from taxpayers," she added.

In the past, most of the money for Superfund site cleanups came from a tax on polluting industries, but that tax has not been collected since it expired in 1995. Congress has refused to renew the tax, forcing general taxpayer funds to be used for ongoing cleanups.

Whitman also highlighted the $15 million increase in the president's budget for Great Lakes sediment cleanup activities under the recently passed Great Lakes Legacy Act. The total of $34 million for the Great Lakes, Whitman explained, will help EPA and its partners assess and remediate contaminated sediments, as well as support local protection and cleanup.

But advocates for cleanup of the Great Lakes estimate its total cost will be around $8 billion, much more than the administration is offering.

"In the national context, President Bush's earmarking of $34 million for Great Lakes cleanup is a start, but hardly puts the Great Lakes in the running for a total commitment to cleanup," said Bryan Clark, legislative advocate for Ohio Public Interest Research Group.

Interior Budget Assumes Funds from ANWR

The Department of Interior fared a bit better than the EPA. The Bush administration has proposed $10.7 billion, a 3.3 percent increase, for the department that includes the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Interior Secretary Norton highlighted increases for fire management and Indian trust programs, as well as expanded opportunities for private/public conservation partnerships.

But it is the administration's inclusion of projected revenues from oil drilling and leasing within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) that has drawn the instant ire of many critics. Within the Department of Interior's budget, the Bush plan assumes that Congress will open ANWR to oil drilling and leasing, bringing in some $2.4 billion in leasing fees in 2005.

Many Congressional Democrats have vowed to fight the President on opening ANWR.

Senator Joe Lieberman (Photo courtesy Office of the Senator)

"In a cynical move, the administration has suggested in the press that any revenues from drilling would be earmarked for research into alternative, renewable sources of energy," added Bonnie Galvin, director of budget and appropriations for The Wilderness Society. "Assuming revenues for what is today prohibited by law doesn't change the facts: drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would ruin one of America's last great places for a scant six months' worth of oil that even oil companies concede would take 10 years to bring to market."

President Bush marked the 100th anniversary of America's National Wildlife Refuge System by proposing a $25.5 million increase in the system's budget for fiscal year 2004, for a total of $1.3 billion. Those funds must cover the operations of 540 refuges covering 95 million acres in all 50 states.

After cutting the EPA's state grants for clean water, the administration added $160 million to the Interior Department for state park and recreational grants through the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Norton said this addition will fully fund the $900 million LWCF.

"These grants from the Land and Water Conservation Fund would be the largest amounts distributed to the states under this program in more than 20 years," Norton said. "The allocations can help state and local governments - many facing budget shortfalls - invest in recreational projects so that all Americans will have access to close-to-home parks and open spaces."

Interior Secretary Gale Norton (Photo courtesy Department of the Interior)

Conservationists say this is misleading. The claim that LWCF is fully funded, said Galvin, is a "serious distortion of the facts."

"At the time President Bush promised to fully fund LWCF, it for many years had been used to finance a total of five fundamental conservation programs supporting land acquisition and recreation," Galvin said. "This year, in an attempt to make LWCF funding look 'full,' the administration shoehorns an additional 15 federal programs under the fund's umbrella.

"This 'shell game' masks what are, in reality, deep cuts of over 50 percent in federal land acquisition funding, which will substantially weaken the ability of the Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Forest Service to protect special places already set aside, and cripple efforts to protect additional places from new threats," she added.

Even where the administration proposes funding increases over the 2003 budget, they are misleading, NRDC's Warren charged, as the 2003 budget proposals themselves reflected substantial cuts from the prior year.

"They may be up $10 million from last year's request," said Warren, "but last year's request had a half a billion dollars cut from 2002."

Interior Department, USDA Fight Fires

The $2.2 billion earmarked for the Interior Department and USDA Forest Service's firefighting programs includes a $219 million increase over last year's budget request, but this has not shielded the administration from additional criticism over its wildfires policy. Some $416 million of the total funding is slated to reduce excess trees and underbrush in 2.5 million acres of forests that are at severe risk of fire, and some believe this is still insufficient.

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman oversees the Forest Service along with a variety of agricultural programs. (Photo courtesy USDA)

The administration's planned spending for U.S. Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, both part of USDA, is a combined $6.7 billion. The USDA budget request includes $2.7 billion for conservation programs under the new farm bill.

Energy Budget Favors Fossil Fuels, Nuclear Power

At the Department of Energy (DOE), the administration's $23.4 billion budget request includes a $40 million increase in spending for fossil energy research and development, but would eliminate the $40 million requested last year for clean coal technology. Total energy conservation spending under the Bush plan is down four percent or $35.9 million, although the president's budget does include $272 million for research and development of hydrogen powered automobiles.

The budget request would slash spending on nuclear waste disposal by some $114 million or 42 percent over last year. The 2004 proposal includes $591 million for constructing a nuclear fuel storage repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada - about the same appropriation as last year.

The president suggested a few energy conservation tax incentives, including a tax break for residential solar energy equipment and the extension of a tax credit for electricity produced from wind and waste materials. The president has proposed extending a tax credit for the purchase of energy saving hybrid and fuel cell vehicles.

The budget requests $7.2 billion for environmental management at the DOE, an increase of $361 million over the fiscal year 2003 requests. These funds will be used to plan and carry out cleanups of 39 DOE controlled sites that are contaminated by radioactive materials and other hazardous wastes.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (Photo courtesy DOE)

But the bulk of the department's funding boost would go toward defense spending. The DOE is responsible for maintaining the nation's nuclear stockpile and safeguarding nuclear facilities.

The DOE's safeguards and security funding in the 2004 budget request is $1.2 billion, an increase of $179 million over the 2003 request. The department is also seeking $6.4 billion - a 9.1 percent increase - for nuclear weapons activities, including extending the life of existing nuclear warheads, and manufacturing the plutonium pits needed for new weapons.

Army Corps, NOAA See Small Increases

Other federal agencies that impact environmental policy include the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The administration's budget sets aside some $4 billion for the Army Corps, a 0.8 increase over the 2003 request. It includes $145 million for environmental restoration projects in Florida's Everglades and $98 million for hydropower and endangered species in the Columbia River.

The president requested a six percent increase for NOAA, which would bring its budget to just over $3.3 billion. His budget includes a proposal to eliminate the Advance Technology Program, a funding mechanism for high-tech ventures.

In introducing his budget proposal, Bush noted that the budget plan "meets the challenges posed by three national priorities - winning the war against terrorism, securing the homeland and generating long term economic growth."

To this end, the request includes more than $400 billion for national defense, along with $670 billion in tax cuts over 10 years. The budget request does not include the possible costs of a war in Iraq.

The full budget and the individual budgets of each agency are available at: http://www.omb.gov