Heather Taylor-Miesle's Blog
Lame Budget from a Lame Duck Administration
February 6, 2008
Posted by Heather Taylor-Miesle in U.S. Law and Policy
Ah….the last budget of the Bush administration. I would say that I will miss this Administration and its legacy of slash and burn spending but that would be a lie (and would mean that I would be out of a job). After seven years of consistently underfunding important environmental programs and initiatives, and at a time when global warming is a pre-eminent concern for many Americans, this was the last chance to repair the enormous damage that had been done to these issues. Apparently, that was not to be.
The Administration released their FY09 budget on Tuesday. At $3+ trillion, one would think that there could be room for significant reinvestment in these programs and in new ones to help us fight the effects of global warming (not to mention doing something crazy like ensuring that communities have clean water or that our natural places are protected).
There is investment, but mostly in technologies of the past. For a President who proudly calls himself a cowboy, this budget’s most telling failure is that is short-changes those programs that inspire innovation, one of America’s most fundamental traits. For instance, energy efficiency and renewable energy programs were scaled back by almost half a BILLION dollars while federal investments in coal and nuclear saw their budgets increase by almost exactly the same amount.
In some cases, programs that could make a real difference immediately in the battle to curb global warming were completely left on the cutting room floor. The most obvious example is the widely-lauded Weatherization Assistance program under the Department of Energy. This program is intended to help low income families reduce their electricity bills by installing energy efficient technologies in their homes. DOE itself has declared it as possibly the most successful energy efficiency program in our history – weatherizing 5.5 million homes in the U.S. It is inexcusable and short-sighted to even consider axing this program.
Instead of funding for a clean energy future, the Administration found plenty of room to provide incentives for dirty industry such as nuclear and liquefied coal. They expect to consider permits for 75,000 new oil and gas wells on Tribal and Federal Land, 40 liquefied natural gas terminals, 100+ re-permitting for nuclear power plants and 25 new nuclear plants. In stark contrast, funding for the research and development of newer, cleaner technologies such as renewable fuels and other energy efficiency measures was cut by 28%.
All this from a president who recently has been strongly touting his commitment to reducing our dependence on oil through clean energy technologies. I would say that it is time for this Administration to stop paying lip-service without action but I think after 7 years, that is all that we can expect. Here is to hoping that Congress feels the same and will ignore this budget proposal.
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- Heather Taylor-Miesle
- NRDC alum
- Heather Taylor-Miesle served as NRDC's deputy legislative director in the Washington, DC office for more...
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