The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Proposed Fiscal Year 2024 Budget
- Michael Regan, Adminstrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Statement by Administrator Regan on the President’s FY 2024 Budget:
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration released the President’s Budget for fiscal year 2024 to the Congress. The Budget requests over $12 billion in discretionary budget authority for the EPA in 2024, a $1.9 billion or 19-percent increase from the fiscal year 2023 enacted level. EPA will release the full Congressional Justification and Budget in Brief materials soon.The President’s Budget makes historic investments to support the Agency’s ongoing work to tackle the climate crisis, advance environmental justice, protect air quality across the nation, invest in critical water infrastructure and increase support for our state and Tribal partners in their efforts to implement environmental laws, and continue to rebuild core functions at the Agency.
“EPA is at the center of President Biden’s ambitious environmental agenda and the FY 2024 Budget will ensure the Agency delivers bold environmental actions and economic benefits for all. Coupled with the President’s historic investments in America through significant legislative accomplishments, the Budget will advance EPA’s mission across the board, boosting everything from our efforts to combat climate change, to delivering clean air, safe water, and healthy lands, to protecting communities from harmful chemicals, and to the continued restoration of capacity necessary to effectively implement these programs,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “Importantly, the Budget also supports our work to center environmental justice across all of the Agency’s programs, ensuring that no family, especially those living in overburdened and underserved areas, has to worry about the air they breathe, the water they drink, or the environmental safety of their communities.”
Highlights of the President’s FY 2024 Budget include:
Tackling the Climate Crisis with Urgency. The EPA’s Budget prioritizes combatting climate change with the urgency that science demands. The Budget includes $5 billion, a $757 million increase over the 2023 enacted level, to support work reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, building resilience in the face of climate impacts, and engaging with the global community to respond to this shared challenge, while also providing resources to spur economic progress and create good-paying jobs. The Budget proposes a $64.4 million increase over the 2023 enacted budget to implement the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act to continue phasing out potent GHGs known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). It also invests $7 million in wildfire smoke preparedness.
Advancing Environmental Justice. The Budget bolsters the Agency’s efforts to achieve environmental justice in communities across the Nation by investing nearly $1.8 billion across numerous programs in support of environmental justice efforts. This investment supports the implementation of the President’s Justice40 commitment, which ensures at least 40 percent of the benefits of Federal investments in climate and clean energy, as well as infrastructure work such as Superfund, Brownfields, and SRFs, reach disadvantaged communities, including rural and Tribal communities. Additionally, this Budget will support activities creating good-paying jobs, cleaning up pollution, advancing equity, and securing environmental justice for communities that often bear the brunt of toxic pollution and impacts of climate change. The Budget also includes $91 million for technical assistance to support capacity building for communities to advance equity and justice.
Upgrading Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure and Replacing Lead Pipes Nationwide. The Budget provides more than $4 billion for water infrastructure, an increase of $1 billion over the 2023 enacted level. These resources foster water infrastructure upgrades, with a focus on underserved and rural communities that have historically been overlooked. The Budget funds all authorizations in the original Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 2021 and maintains funding for EPA’s State Revolving Funds at the total 2023 enacted level, which complements funds provided for water infrastructure programs in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Budget also provides $219 million for two grant programs dedicated to reducing lead in drinking water and lead testing in schools (an increase of $163 million over the 2023 enacted level). It also funds other grants and loans to advance the goal of replacing all lead pipes. Ensuring Clean and Healthy Air for All Communities. The Budget allocates $1.4 billion to improve air quality and reduce localized pollution, reduce exposure to radiation, and improve indoor air for communities across the country. This includes $180 million to support the development and implementation of national emission standards to reduce air pollution from vehicles, engines and fuels. The Budget also supports $367 million to assist air pollution control agencies in the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs for the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and to establish standards for reducing air toxics.
Protecting Communities from Hazardous Waste and Environmental Damage. The prevention and cleanup of harmful environmental damage that poses a risk to public health and safety continues to be a top priority for EPA. In addition to an estimated $2.5 billion in Superfund tax revenue that will be available to EPA in 2024, the Budget provides over $350 million for the Superfund program to continue cleaning up some of the Nation’s most contaminated land and respond to environmental emergencies and natural disasters. The Budget also provides over $215 million for EPA’s Brownfields program to provide technical assistance and grants to communities, including overburdened and underserved communities, so they can safely clean up and reuse contaminated properties, as well as $20 million for the Alaska Contaminated Lands program. These programs support the President’s Cancer Moonshot initiative by reducing human exposure to harmful contaminants that are correlated with an increased risk for cancer.
Ensuring Safety of Chemicals for People and the Environment. The Budget provides an investment of $130 million, $49 million more than the 2023 enacted level to build core capacity to implement the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Under TSCA, EPA has a responsibility to ensure the safety of chemicals in or entering commerce. In FY 2024, EPA will focus on evaluating, assessing, and managing risks from exposure to new and existing industrial chemicals to advance human health protection in our communities. Another priority is to implement FIFRA to ensure pesticides pose no unreasonable risks to human health and the environment.
Tackling Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Pollution. The Budget provides approximately $170 million to combat PFAS pollution. PFAS substances are a group of chemicals that threaten the health and safety of all communities. This request allows the EPA to continue working toward commitments made under EPA’s 2021 PFAS Strategic Roadmap, including: increasing our knowledge of PFAS impacts to human health and ecological effects, restricting use to prevent PFAS from entering the air, land, and water, and remediating PFAS that have been released into the environment.
Enforcing and Assuring Compliance with the Nation’s Environmental Laws. The Budget provides $246 million for civil enforcement efforts, crucial funding for enforcement in communities with high pollution exposure, and for preventing the illegal importation and use of climate super-pollutant HFCs in the United States. The Budget also includes: $165 million for compliance monitoring efforts, including funds to conduct inspections in underserved and overburdened communities, and funds to rebuild the agency’s inspector corps; and $75 million for criminal enforcement efforts, which includes funding to increase outreach to victims of environmental crimes and develop a specialized criminal enforcement task force to address environmental justice issues in partnership with the Department of Justice. Restoring Critical Capacity to Carry Out EPA’s Core Mission. To position the Agency with the workforce required to address emerging and ongoing challenges, the Budget added nearly 2,000 Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) relative to the current level, for a total of more than 17,000 FTEs, to help rebuild the Agency’s workforce. Developing staffing capacity across the Agency would enable EPA to better protect our Nation’s health, while also providing avenues to strengthen and advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Staffing resources would additionally fund a significant expansion of EPA’s paid student internship program to develop a pipeline of qualified staff.
The Budget makes these smart investments to address emerging and ongoing environmental challenges while creating good-paying jobs and improving our country’s long-term fiscal outlook.
Building on the President’s strong record of fiscal responsibility, the Budget more than fully pays for its investments — reducing deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade by asking the wealthy and big corporations to pay their fair share.
Risky Business: How Climate Change is Changing Insurance Markets
The Budget Committee is holding a hearing on how the climate crisis is making insurance more expensive and harder to find.
Witnesses:- Eric Anderson, President, Aon
- Nancy Watkins, Principal Consulting Actuary, Milliman
- Dr. Benjamin Keys, Professor Of Real Estate, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
- Dr. Judith Curry, President And Co-Founder, Climate Forecast Applications Network (GOP witness)
- Jerry Theodorou, Director, Finance, Insurance, and Trade, R Street Institute (GOP witness)
Roundtable: State of Federal Real Estate
This a roundtable of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management.
Participant List:- Nina Albert, Commissioner, Public Buildings Service, General Services Administration (GSA)
- David Marroni, Acting Director, Physical Infrastructure, Government Accountability Office (GAO)
- Michael Capuano, Public Buildings Reform Board
- David L. Winstead, Public Buildings Reform Board
- Derrick Mashore, Senior Vice President, Advisory and Transaction Services, CBRE
- Chad Habeeb, Principal, Director of Leasing, FD Stonewater, LLC
- Kay Sargent, Director of WorkPlace, HOK
- Timothy O. Horne, EVP, Portfolio Management, Head of Denver Office, Boyd Watterson Asset Management, LLC
A Review of the Fiscal Year 2024 President’s Budget for the U.S. Forest Service
Presiding: Chair Merkley
Witness:- Randy Moore, Chief, U.S. Forest Service
- US Forest Service Congressional Budget Justification: $9.7 billion. The 2024 Budget dedicates $323 million toward management for “hazardous fuels reduction”, an increase of $116 million from the 2023 enacted level. The 2024 Budget request for workforce salaries and expenses is $1.42 billion, a $509 million increase above the 2023 enacted level to fund the costs of pay reforms for Federal wildland firefighters and increase Federal firefighting capacity.
Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Request for the U.S. Department of State
Presiding: Chair Coons
Witness:- Antony J. Blinken, Secretary, U.S. Department of State
- Congressional Budget Justification: $63.1 billion for the Department of State and USAID
- $800 million in ESF for the State Department to provide to the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
- $425 million for Climate Investment Funds
- $168.7 million for Global Environmental Facility
- $27 million for Multilateral Development Bank Climate Trust Funds and Facilities
- $18.5 million for Diplomatic Policy and Support, Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, including costs for the U.S. Center at the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
- $16 million for World Meteorological Organization
- $6 million for Diplomatic Policy and Support, Energy Resources
- $4.8 million for International Renewable Energy Agency
- $537 thousand for International Union for Conservation of Nature
Marine Debris Legislation and Improving Rail Safety in Response to the East Palestine Derailment
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a full committee Executive Session on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. ET to consider legislation and a presidential nomination. The Committee will hold a full committee hearing titled “Improving Rail Safety in Response to the East Palestine Derailment” directly following the Executive Session.
Executive Session
Agenda:
- S. 66, NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023
- S. 90, Informing Consumers About Smart Devices Act
- S. 127, Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act of 2023
- S. 318, Save our Seas 2.0 Amendments Act, to improve the administration of the Marine Debris Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- S. 467, CADETS Act
- Nomination of Mr. Phillip A. Washington to be Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (PN9)
Executive Session Details:
Full Committee Executive Session Wednesday, March 22, 2023 10:00 a.m. ET Committee Hearing Room, Russell 253
Hearing: Improving Rail Safety in Response to the East Palestine Derailment
The Committee will hear testimony regarding Norfolk Southern’s safety record and how the February 3, 2023, derailment and the controlled burn of vinyl chloride impacted the East Palestine, Ohio, community. Witnesses will also discuss suggestions for how to improve the safety of the nation’s rail network, hazardous materials transportation safety and emergency response, including the provisions of S. 576, the Railway Safety Act of 2023.
Introduction Panel:
- U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown
- U.S. Senator J.D. Vance
- Mike DeWine, Governor of Ohio
- Misti Allison, Resident of East Palestine
- Jennifer Homendy, Chair, National Transportation Safety Board
- David Comstock, Chief, Ohio Western Reserve Joint Fire District
- Clyde Whitaker, Legislative Director, Ohio State SMART-TD
- Alan Shaw, CEO, Norfolk Southern
- Ian Jefferies, CEO, Association of American Railroads
ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit: Day One
The ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit (The Summit) is an annual conference and technology showcase that brings together experts from different technical disciplines and professional communities to think about America’s energy challenges in new and innovative ways. Now in its thirteenth year, the Summit offers a unique, three-day program aimed at moving transformational energy technologies out of the lab and into the market.
The summit is taking place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland.
Agenda: Day One | Day Two | Day Three
| 10:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. | Opening Remarks & Keynote Address | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:15 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. | Fireside Chat
|
| 10:50 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. | Fireside Chat
|
| 11:15 a.m. – 11:35 a.m. | Keynote Address
|
| 11:35 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. | Fireside Chat
|
| 11:55 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. | Keynote Address
| Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
| 11:45 a.m. – 1:45 p.m. | Government Agency Networking Program (GANP)
| The Government Agency Networking Program (GANP) at the annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit provides an opportunity to meet with representatives from federal government agencies to discuss research interests, funding solicitations, grants, and other potential partnership opportunities.
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | Fast Pitch: Batteries & Storage
|
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | Lab to Impact: Maximizing Success with Technology Licensing Offices
|
In this panel, we will delve into best practices for how and when to engage with Technology Licensing Offices, and what common pitfalls to avoid. We will hear from a diversity of stakeholders representing an inventor, investor, lawyer, and licensing office, who will share their successes and failures – drawing from decades of experience. Whether you are looking to spin out a startup or license a technology, this panel will help provide practical takeaways on how to maximize success and impact.
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | Prospects for Inertial Fusion Energy Given the Recent Achievement of Ignition at the National Ignition Facility
|
This panel will address the following questions about the prospects for inertial fusion energy (IFE): Can lasers be made efficient enough to enable a commercial IFE power plant? Can targets be made inexpensively and at scale? Are the physics challenges going from indirect drive (as is done on the National Ignition Facility) to direct drive (or another concept) tractable?
| 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Fast Pitch: Industrial Processes
|
| 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Decarbonizing the “Bus Stop” of the Future: Innovations in Urban Transportation
| As cities strive to reduce carbon emissions and improve urban transportation, defining the “bus stop” of the future, and with it, the necessary technology innovations and infrastructure, is becoming increasingly important. In high population density areas, where large metro systems are not available, the energy implications of the shift towards electrified and on-demand mobility options must be considered. Ride-hailing services currently optimize for pick-up proximity, but what does the equivalent approach for passenger transit look like in these situations and what role does energy efficiency need to play when the most convenient option is continued reliance on privately owned, personally driven cars? How does the increase in car sales during the pandemic further factor into future solutions? This thought-provoking panel will explore the disruptive innovations and flexible options that can address the energy consumption of future modes of urban transportation and tackle the question of how to ensure equity for all.
| 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Beyond VC: Alternative Funding Sources for Startups
| Panelists from a range of non-dilutive (federal, state and non-profit) and “less-dilutive” (venture debt, in various structures) funding sources will discuss how energy- and climate-tech startups can navigate non-traditional funding sources to best support their companies’ growth plans.
| 5:00 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. | Tech Demo: Advanced Operation & Maintenance Techniques implemented in the Xe-100 Plant Digital Twin to reduce Fixed O&M Cost
| X-energy is an Advanced Reactor design company and an awardee of the ARPA-E GEMINA Program. The main objective of the GEMINA Program is to demonstrate how Digital Twins can reduce Fixed Operations & Maintenance (O&M) costs for the Advanced Reactors (i.e. the Xe-100). X-energy’s 3D Immersive Digital Twin Experience demonstrates the integration between the physics-based Xe-100 Simulator and a 3D virtual representation of the Xe-100 plant. Users can walk through and interact with the Virtual Reality (VR) model as if it were the real Xe-100 plant. During the design phases of the Xe-100, the 3D model is being used for iterative design reviews to incorporate feedback, optimize layouts, and inform future work. During the operation phase of the Xe-100, the 3D model will be used for training of plant staff, particularly Maintenance crews. Combined with X-DATA™, X-energy’s Digital Twin product, the 3D Immersive Environment supports the implementation of “Central Maintenance” concepts that will ultimately lead to a safer, more reliable, and more economic nuclear plant for the 21st century.
| 5:45 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. | Tech Demo: Low-cost non-destructive plant root phenotyping
| Tomographic Electrical Rhizosphere Imager (TERI) is a technology aiming to make plant root phenotyping easier and faster. Root digging, washing, photographing, counting, and analysis have been the standard practice for field scale root phenotyping for a very long time. This is a process that is low throughput and very time and labor consuming. TERI aims to disrupt this practice to significantly accelerate plant root phenotyping at field scales to help accelerate the development of new root-superior plant varieties that are more resource efficient and climate resilient. TERI technology is based on the dialectic properties and behavior of plant root systems and can work under almost any type of soil, moisture, and plant species conditions. The lightweight of the hardware system and the user-friendly software interface make the system very easy to use by anyone without the technical background.
| 6:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. | Tech Demo: Basin-SCAN: Basin Scale Continuous oil and gas emissions mitigAtion Network
| Founded in 2018 through the ARPA-E MONITOR program, LongPath Technologies is the “5G” of methane measurement and abatement, providing a proven and standardized approach across the value chain. Our specialized laser systems detect, locate and quantify site-level emissions across 20+ square mile regions with a single laser tower, and the continuous emissions monitoring networks provide actionable real-time alerts and quantitative emission rates to oil and gas operators. LongPath’s innovative regional-scale solution provides continuous, reliable data at the lowest cost to the customer.
| 7:15 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Tech Demo: Pilot Production for Commercial Sampling of Rare-Earth-Free Iron Nitride Permanent Magnets
| Niron Magnetics has developed the first powerful permanent magnets free of rare earths and other critical materials. Niron’s Iron Nitride-based Clean Earth Magnet® technology makes use of globally available commodity raw material inputs. As an ARPA-E SCALEUP awardee, Niron is expanding its pilot production to support commercial design partnerships, including those with GM, Volvo Cars, Western Digital, Tymphany Audio, and Premium Sound Solutions.
| |
Stop Dirty Banks National Day of Action
Join Third Act for a National Day of Action on March 21, 2023 – 3.21.23! Together we demand banks stop funding climate chaos.
Over the past year, thousands of you have taken the Banking on Our Future pledge to close your accounts, cut up your credit cards, and boycott Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, and Wells Fargo if they don’t move their investments out of fossil fuels. On 3.21.23, we gather to show the strength of our movement!
You don’t need to be a cardholder or a Third Actor to participate––we need people of all ages, races, and means to make visible the connection between cash and carbon. Bring your friends, energy, and creativity!
Find an event on the map or see a full listing.
In Washington DC, an interfaith group will hold a brief prayer service and then lead a slow-moving Walk of Hope around the 2-block area at Franklin Park, singing and cheering on the rocking chair vigil keepers. At midday, there will be a Rally with music, food, testimonials from frontline communities, appeals from youth, and cutting up credit cards, and we are honored that Bill McKibben himself will join us, along with Ben Jealous, Ebony Twilley Martin and Rose Abramoff!
In the afternoon a louder March of Action featuring union and youth contingents, drummers and chants, and big puppets will return to the banks, where labor activists and others will form picket lines outside each bank. The day will culminate with a joyful Rocking Chair Rebellion in an intersection outside two of the banks, featuring seniors in rocking chairs blocking the bank entrances, chalk art, music, puppets and more.
Building the Green Transition: A Justice-Centered Vision for Permitting Reform
Efficiently greenlighting the development of renewable energy projects is crucial to the clean energy transition. But the conversation about how to reform permitting processes has been dominated by proposals that aim to speed the permitting process by limiting democratic participation and weakening environmental review. These proposals risk leaving frontline communities more vulnerable to exploitation—particularly from polluting industries—and making it faster and easier to develop fossil fuel projects.
On March 21, the Roosevelt Institute hosted a one-day, in-person conversation in Washington, DC, to discuss the need for permitting reform that centers climate justice and highlights progressive ideas for how to hasten the green transition.
10:00 am SESSION 1: WELCOME- Marissa Guananja, Chief Programs Officer, Roosevelt Institute
- Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Director of Climate Policy, Roosevelt Institute
10:15 am SESSION 2: PANEL – WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH PERMITTING?
Moderator: Hannah Vogel, Policy Advisor, Office of Senator Edward Markey
Panelists:- Jungwoo Chun, Postdoctoral Impact Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Climate and Sustainability Consortium
- Adam Cohen, Co-founder and CEO, Ranger Power
- Jamie Pleune, Associate Professor of Law (Research) and Wallace Stegner Center Fellow at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
- Anthony Rogers-Wright, Director of Environmental Justice, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
11:15 am SESSION 3: PANEL – WHAT ABOUT COMMUNITIES? PERMITTING AS A TOOL FOR JUSTICE.
Moderator: Adrien Salazar, Policy Director, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Panelists:- Aminah Ghaffar, Community Organizer, 7 Directions of Service
- Fermina Stevens, Director, Western Shoshone Defense Project
- Naomi Yoder, Staff Scientist, Healthy Gulf
12:00 pm LUNCH
12:45 pm SESSION 4: KEYNOTE- Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts
1:15 pm SESSION 5: PANEL – NEPA REFORM: HOW CAN PERMITTING SUPPORT EQUITY AND IMPROVE DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION?
Moderator: Dana Johnson, Senior Director of Strategy and Federal Policy, WE ACT
Panelists:- Raul Garcia, Legislative Director for Healthy Communities, Policy and Legislation, Earthjustice
- Maria Lopez-Nuñez, Deputy Director of Organizing and Advocacy, Ironbound Community Corporation
- Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, Executive Director, Western Environmental Law Center
- Nicky Sheats, Director of the Center for the Urban Environment at the John S. Watson Institute for Urban Policy and Research, Kean University
2:00 pm SESSION 6: PANEL – HOW CAN WE REFORM PERMITTING PROCESSES RELATED TO TRANSMISSION?
Moderator: Jennie Chen, Senior Manager, Clean Energy, World Resources Institute
Panelists:- Nathanael Green, Senior Renewable Energy Advocate, Climate & Clean Energy Program, Natural Resources Defense Council
- Suedeen Kelly, Partner & Co-chair, Energy Practice, Jenner & Block LLP
- Tyler Norris, Vice President of Development, Cypress Creek Renewables
- Christine Powell, Deputy Managing Attorney, Earthjustice
- Abbie Dillen, President, Earthjustice
The President’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget with Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen
- Janet L. Yellen, Secretary, United States Department of the Treasury