President Biden’s Budget Provides Climate Vision

We encourage Congress to meet the ambition of this vision to tackle the energy and climate crises—and improve lives while doing so.

If the president’s annual budget is a statement of values, then President Biden’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 BudgetThis budget clearly shows that the administration places climate change and protecting communities at the top its agenda. This budget will be a landmark that Congress should seriously consider. It places a strong emphasis on deficit reduction and addresses energy in these difficult times.

In a dramatic departure from the weak international climate funding that Congress included in its appropriations package that was recently signed into law, the president’s budget includes international climate investments that could lead to critical emissions reductions while helping the most vulnerable and demonstrating American leadership. The budget totals $11 billion, which includes $5.3 billion in appropriated investment and more than $5.5 trillion in credit and development financing programs. Jake Schmidt and Brendan Guy explain the implications of international investments for our position on the world stage. Here.

Overall, the president’s budget invests a total of $44.9 billion to tackle the climate crisis, a $16.7 billion increase from FY 2021. The budget also includes increases to agencies that are still struggling to function at full capacity after being hampered by Trump’s administration. The budget includes $11.9billion for the Environmental Protection Agency, which is a 29 per cent increase over the 2021 enacted level. The Department of the Interior budget proposal is $17.5 million, which is a 19.3 percentage increase over the level of 2021. The Bureau of Land Management and the Fish & Wildlife Service would also see increases in this proposal.

The proposed Department of Energy budget is $48.2B in funding. This is $6.3B (or 15.1%) above the level of 2021. What’s critical here is that this additional funding includes investments in clean energy, environmental justice, and power grid and efficiency upgrades, including:

• $502 million for DOE programs that weatherize and retrofit low income homes. Also $100 million for a Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), Advantage pilot to electrify the homes of those who most depend on LIHEAP funding.
• $34 million for the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity for implementing the department’s Justice40 efforts and equity action plan; and
• More than $65 Billion was provided by the DOE to upgrade power infrastructure and facilitate the expansion and financing of clean energy programs.

According to the White House Fact sheet, “President Biden is committed to decreasing energy costs for households, including in rural, tribal, and disadvantaged communities.” This bears out in a number of key investments including:

• $900 Million in Housing and Urban Development programs for modernization activities at HUD properties. This is aimed to improve energy efficiency and climate change resilience.
• $21.1 billion for public transport, including $4.5 billion to provide new high-quality bus rapid transit or rail service to more communities. This will save them money and reduce our dependence on oil.
• Federal programs and initiatives totaling more than $9 billion support economic revitalization in energy communities and job creation.

The international climate budget is divided between several agencies and tools with a total of $11 billion. This includes important investments like:

• $2.3 billion for bilateral renewable energies, sustainable landscapes and adaptation strategies at U.S. Agency for International Development and State Department;
• $1.6 billion for Green Climate Fund (GCF), which should be funded at an even higher level; and
• $5.5 Billion for strategies to unleash investment from the Millennium Challenge Corporation(MCC), International Development Finance Corporation(DFC), Export-Import Bank, (EXIM), or multilateral funds

$757 million to support charging infrastructure and zero-emission fleet cars, as well as $20 million to the Department of Labor to work with AmeriCorps to create a Civilian Climate Corps program.

Though not everything can be perfect, this budget provides $4 billion for the EPA’s water infrastructure programs, compared to about $3 billion last year. While it’s important that these programs are continuing to increase, they still fall far short of what we need to address our nation’s water and wastewater infrastructure crisis, even taking into account the additional funding provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act(also known as Bipartisan infrastructure Law or BIL). We must continue to build on the BIL’s progress by increasing our investment in these vital resources.

Overall, however this budget proposal provides the vision and ambition that we need to tackle the most urgent problems facing us, with climate changes at the top. We urge Congress to consider this budget proposal and to meet the ambitions set forth here to address the energy and climate crises, and improve lives.