In The Media - Climate Change Tops California's Proposed Budget Priorities

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Posted by: Community Fuels

1/18/2005

The California governor's fiscal year 2006-07 budget proposes tens of million of dollars and dozens of new policies to carry out greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions as well as several enforcement initiatives at California EPA.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006 Climate Change Tops California's Proposed Budget Priorities
The California governor's fiscal year 2006-07 budget proposes tens of million of dollars and dozens of new policies to carry out greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions as well as several enforcement initiatives at California EPA. SECTION: Vol. 3 No. 3 The proposed budget for the agency would be less than last year's spending levels, reflecting the exhaustion of previous bond issuance money for air and water quality programs. Environmentalists say these reductions should alert lawmakers working on massive new infrastructure bond proposals to make sure significant environment and resources funding is included. Overall, Cal/EPA's proposed budget is $1.4 billion, which is about $436 million less than the current fiscal year budget. Almost all of Cal/EPA's funding comes from special funds -- less than $100 million comes from the General Fund. Cal/EPA's total budget makes up slightly less than 1 percent of the state's total budget. To reduce GHG emissions, the budget proposes $7.2 million and 23 additional staff positions; $5.2 million and 14 positions are earmarked for the Air Resources Board to develop measures to require the use of biodiesel fuel, reduce hydrofluorocarbons emissions and reduce emissions from heavy-duty vehicles. The Cal/EPA secretary's office would receive nearly $1 million to "lead a coordinated statewide effort to meet" the governor's GHG-emission reduction targets established last June, including "economic analysis and inventory improvement." The California Energy Commission would receive about $600,000 to update the statewide GHG emission inventory and accelerate the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard. The California Integrated Waste Management Board would receive $466,000 and three new positions to expand existing efforts to capture methane from landfills and enhance recycling efforts, under the governor' proposed budget. Significant new funding and positions are also being proposed to bolster enforcement at the agency, with $4 million and 19 new positions earmarked for CARB, $1.5 million and 14 new positions at the Department of Toxic Substances Control, $425,000 and four new positions at the Department of Pesticide Regulation and $223,000 and three new positions at CIWMB. The bolstered CARB enforcement efforts are aimed at enforcing heavy-duty diesel regulations, evaluating on-board diagnostic systems in vehicles and replacing older testing and diagnostic equipment. DTSC's proposed new funding for enforcement is dedicated to enhancing existing enforcement related to electronic waste recycling. DPR will use the extra money to conduct additional pesticide mill assessments audits, according to the proposal, while CIWMB would concentrate on investigating fraud in its electronic waste program. The proposed budget would give the administration's hydrogen highways initiative $6.5 million through CARB's budget to provide matching funds for three publicly accessible hydrogen fueling stations, enabling the state to leverage federal matching funds for five fuel cell buses to be used in public transit fleets, according to the proposed budget. In addition to those priority programs, the governor's budget also earmarks tens of millions of dollars for water quality monitoring and water pollution prevention. Environmentalists said that while they are pleased that climate change and enforcement programs are being bolstered in the governor's budget, they believe that several core areas are still being under-funded, including chemical risk assessment at the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, brownfields cleanup at DTSC and diesel emission reduction programs at CARB. To help boost environmental protection and resources funding, environmentalists are expected to push lawmakers crafting a compromise infrastructure bond proposal to include many of the provisions of a pending natural resources bond bill, SB 153 (Sen. Wesley Chesbro, D-Arcata), according to sources. "The bonds are critical, especially since the governor's proposal would basically soak up all the available bond funding for the next decade," said an environmental lobbyist. "So if the reason why Cal/EPA's budget is going down is the exhaustion of current bond funding, then it really highlights the need to include more environmental funding in any bonds that will go to the ballot this year, especially since the plan for expanding infrastructure will have a clear impact on our air and water."
	EnergyWashington Week

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