Times Are Tough, But Not at USEPA – Proposed Budget Up 34% plus Added Stimulus Money and New Excise Tax

On February 26, 2009, the Obama administration proposed a budget of $10.5 billion for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  The proposed fiscal year (FY) 2010 budget would be the largest in the agency’s 39-year history, and a whopping increase of $3 billion from 2008 funding levels.  That amounts to a 40% funding increase over 2008, and a 34% increase over the “2009 likely enacted level”.  Recession?… not at EPA.

 

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson is obviously pleased with the proposed spending level for her Agency: 

 

“The president’s budget proposes critical resources to protect the American people and the places where they live, work and play.  We are no longer faced with the false choice of a strong economy or a clean environment.  With these proposed resources, and the president’s strong environmental agenda, it should be overwhelmingly clear that EPA is back on the job.”

 

If the proposed FY2010 budget windfall wasn’t enough good news for the nation’s chief environmental regulators, earlier last month President Obama announced that as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, there would be an additional $7.22 billion for EPA-administered projects and programs.

 

The EPA lists the following “funding highlights” of their proposed budget:

 

• Provides $3.9 billion for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, an unprecedented Federal commitment to water infrastructure investment in the United States. 

• Provides $475 million for a new Environmental Protection Agency-led, interagency Great Lakes restoration initiative, which will target the most significant problems in the region, including invasive aquatic species, non-point source pollution, and contaminated sediment.

• Funds the Agency’s operating budget, which comprises its core regulatory, research, and enforcement activities, at $3.9 billion, the highest level ever.

• Provides over $1.1 billion in grants for States and Tribes to administer environmental programs.

Superfund Excise Tax

While EPA’s wallet will be quite fat indeed, it seems that the private sector’s wallets will be shrinking due to EPA’s plan to reinstate Superfund excise taxes that expired in 1995.   The taxation target is oil and chemical producers.  EPA plans to collect over $1 billion to clean up the Nation’s most toxic, contaminated sites within the Superfund program, although another news source pegged the expected amount to be $6.6 billion by 2014.  The reinstated excise taxes will not begin until 2011, when EPA expects the economy to have sufficiently recovered to absorb this added financial burden.

 

For further details on EPA’s FY2010 budget and policy priorities, see the following web sites:

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/F34F79B60FCDF4EB852575690068995B http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/fy2010_new_era/Environmental_Protection_Agency1.pdf

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=awFmri0ADH58&refer=home

 

This article was excerpted from publically available information, and was authored by Rick Wilson, Acacia Environmental Group LLC.  For more information on the author see here.