Markey: On Climate, Energy, President's Budget Picks Dirty, Dangerous Fuels

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Contact: Select Committee, 202-225-4081

Markey: On Climate, Energy, President’s Budget Picks Dirty, Dangerous Fuels

Chooses Coal, Nuclear Increases; Cuts Renewables, Efficiency, Low-Income Heating Assistance

WASHINGTON (February 4, 2008) --  Consistent with administration policies that have favored old, dirty energy technologies and special interests over a new generation of clean, renewable fuels and energy assistance for the poor, the President Bush’s fiscal year 2009 budget released today would increase funding for coal and nuclear energy, while eliminating weatherization and renewable energy production incentive programs, and reduce funding for low-income energy assistance in times of record prices.

“By cutting funding for low-income heating assistance and completely eliminating a highly successful weatherization energy-efficiency program, the President is giving the cold shoulder to America’s poor. Perhaps the President thinks that his do-nothing climate policy is changing the weather enough that weatherization programs are no longer needed,” said Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. “Faced with a climate and energy crisis, hundred dollar oil, and an American public eager for change, President Bush instead proposes to invest in the dirty fuels of the past, cut low-income assistance and refuses to invest in a future of cleaner, greener fuels that can rescue our economy and environment from their dire straits.”

Here are the climate and energy highlights from the President’s budget:

--Changing weather, eliminating weatherization.

• Even though the president just signed a bill that reauthorized the program, his 2009 budget completely eliminates the Weatherization Assistance program, which enables low-income families to permanently reduce their energy bills by making their homes more energy efficient. The Department of Energy’s website claims the program “is this country's longest running, and perhaps most successful energy efficiency program. During the last 30 years, the U.S. Department of Energy 's (DOE) Weatherization Assistance Program has provided weatherization services to more than 5.5 million low-income families.” (WH Budget, Dept. of Energy, See Pages 393-394)
  

-- High prices--yes! Low-income assistance--no!

• In a further blow to low-income families facing record energy bills, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a block grant program that helps the poor pay heating and air-conditioning bills, is cut by $280 million. (WH Budget, Dept of Health and Human Services, See Page 456)
  

--So much for solar.

• While the President maintains that he is committed to confronting climate change and increasing America’s energy security, the proposed budget cuts $490 million, or 28 percent, from energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. Solar energy research -- an initiative Bush claims is aimed at “making solar power cost-competitive with conventional electricity by 2015”-- is reduced by $12 million from 2008 levels. Of the 3 programs that were cut completely in DOE’s budget, two were for renewable energy development and energy efficiency. (WH Budget, Dept. of Energy, See Page 393)
  

--Coal funding increases as climate-friendly projects are cut.

• A week after pulling the plug on the FutureGen coal sequestration project in Illinois, the budget for the “President’s Coal Research Initiative” rises $237 million, more than 40 percent, over 2008 levels. (WH Budget, Dept. of Energy, See Page 395)
  

--A boost in recycling. . .nuclear fuel.

• Various nuclear programs get boosted support, including the controversial Advanced Fuel Cycle Research program, which has reversed decades of U.S. policy by encouraging reprocessing of spent fuel from civilian reactors that produce weapons-grade nuclear waste. Funding for this initiative rises $123 million, or 69 percent, over 2008 levels. (WH Budget, Dept. of Energy, See Page 391)
  

 

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