Hill Heat

Includes NOAA budget.

From E&E News:

The farm bill’s investment of billions of dollars of new spending in conservation and energy will face its first test this week, as the agriculture appropriations markup process begins.

The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee is scheduled to mark up its fiscal 2009 spending measure Thursday. The bill will allocate discretionary spending for the Agriculture Department and could lay the foundation for the farm bill’s mandatory funds.

The farm bill that Congress approved last month would invest $4 billion more in conservation and $1 billion in energy over its five-year lifespan. The funding is mandatory, so not technically subject to the appropriations process.

But the spending bill includes much of the technical assistance and operations funding that lays the groundwork for the farm bill’s mandatory programs. And it could include some limits on mandatory money.

Under the GOP-controlled Congress, appropriators regularly put limits on mandatory farm bill conservation programs – effectively cutting hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Farm lobbyists do not expect to see that process repeated this year. Subcommittee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) has a personal investment in maintaining farm bill programs, since she was on the farm bill conference committee. Her panel only put limits on the Environmental Quality Incentives Program last year.

But the panel faces distinct challenges this year. They will have to find significantly more money to invest in the “Women, Infants and Children” (WIC) program, which gives assistance for children and mothers at nutritional risk. WIC could place a strain on the overall agriculture budget. The weak economy and increased food costs mean that more people are applying for the program, and it costs more for USDA to administer.

WIC is separate from the mandatory food stamps program and falls under discretionary spending that appropriators must find funding for if they wish to maintain the program.

The spending panel has some relief in its budget allocation. The 302(b) allocations the Appropriations Committee released on Friday would give agriculture $20.6 billion – a significant step up from the administration’s $18.7 request and the $18.5 billion it received last year. The full committee is scheduled to vote on the allocations Wednesday.

But farm lobbyists say that boost may not be enough to cover WIC and all of the other new demands on USDA spending.

Appropriators also have to find money to pay for the expanded workforce to implement the new farm bill programs. One of the most important line items for conservation programs is the discretionary “conservation operations” account, which pays for staff for the Natural Resources Conservation Service and technical assistance to help farmers and landowners come up with conservation plans.

Subcommittee staff have said the Bush administration’s budget request would cause a 12 percent reduction in the workforce.

If appropriators do place spending limits on farm bill conservation programs, one of the most vulnerable programs could be the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, according to farm lobbyists.

Part of the vulnerability for EQIP is that it has a large pool of money from which to draw. It is the second-largest USDA conservation program, and it received some of the biggest funding increases in the new farm bill. The farm bill budgets more than $1.3 billion for EQIP in fiscal 2009. Last year the program received $1 billion.

EQIP offers cost-share assistance for farmers to implement conservation programs on working lands. DeLauro’s panel placed limits on EQIP last year, keeping it below the fully authorized amount in the farm bill.

Farm bill sequel

As appropriators look for funding to support the new farm bill, Congress is still working to make sure all 15 of its titles are enacted.

Lawmakers approved the bill last month and voted to override the veto from President Bush. But the printed version of the act that went to the White House was missing the trade title, so that section of the bill was not legally enacted. The trade title oversees international food aid and a softwood lumber program.

To remedy the problem created by the missing paperwork, the House and Senate approved the entire farm bill again. It is expected to go to the White House this week, and Bush plans to veto it upon his return from Europe, a spokesman said. Once the bill is vetoed, the House and Senate will have to find time in their schedule to take up the override vote again.

USDA has already started to implement some of the farm bill programs in the new law. Agency officials announced last week they would start implementing the marketing assistance loan and loan deficiency payment provisions in the act.

In partnership with DC Gives, we are unveiling our new membership program that will make greener lifestyles more affordable and accessible for everyday living in DC and beyond.

Sponsors include: Local 16, Center for a New American Dream’s Conscious Consumer Marketplace, Green Drinks DC, Going Green DC, and Stacey Vaeth Photography.

Local 16 1602 U Street, NW Washington, DC

$15 at the door benefiting Live Green (RSVP required at: [email protected]) or $13 right here (your name will be added to our door list.)

Cover includes: light fare, an optional one-year membership with Live Green, and live music from:

THE BLACK AND TAN FANTASY BAND

Featuring Ashish Vyas of Thievery Corporation, Jerry Busher of Fugazi and Will Rast of Funk Arc

In partnership with DC Gives, we are unveiling our new membership program that will make greener lifestyles more affordable and accessible for everyday living in DC and beyond.

ABOUT LIVE GREEN: Live Green is a DC-based membership organization providing discounts on everyday green products and services, and programs supporting sustainable living communities.

ABOUT DC GIVES: DC Gives is a network of individuals who organize fundraisers for DC-based community groups and progressive organizations. Its goals are to throw distinctive, creative events and foster collaboration between DC’s artistic and progressive communities. It believes the best networking happens when people are having a really good time.

The Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute cordially invite you to a discussion featuring

Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA)

and

• Wilson Rickerson, Rickerson Energy Strategies
• Janet Sawin, Worldwatch Institute
• Dr. Anthony White, Climate Change Capital

A light lunch will be served.

Please join us for a lunch briefing that explores the potential for renewable energy payment legislation within the US electricity sector. Renewable energy payments (also known as feed-in tariffs in Europe and elsewhere) guarantee smaller renewable energy technologies a connection to the electricity grid, and provide a premium rate to these investors designed to generate a reasonable profit over a long term. Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA) will begin the event by introducing his forthcoming bill (The Renewable Energy Jobs and Security Act), which incorporates the renewable energy payment for these industries that enter the US electricity market. The event will give an overview about first experiences with such legislation on the US state level. Also, the briefing will review the experiences of Europe, particularly in Germany, where renewable energy payment legislation has created rapid growth in the renewable energy industries since 1990, causing the nation to become the world’s largest market for photovoltaic systems and wind energy. By the end of 2007, 46 countries and federal states, including 18 of the 27 EU member-states, had introduced renewable energy payment legislation as a major incentive to deploy renewable energy.

Seating is limited. Please RSVP to Amy Sauer at [email protected]

HBF and EESI are 501©(3) public policy institutes that neither employ nor retain any registered lobbyists.

Witnesses Terrell Dorn, Director, Construction and Facilities Management, U. S. Government Accountability Office

Stephen T. Ayers, Acting Architect of the Capitol

Brendan Owens, Vice President, LEED Technical Development, U.S. Green Building Council

• Jean Carroon, Preservation Architect, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Sustainability Coalition

Open Executive Session to consider the “Iran Sanctions Act of 2008” and pending nominations.

From E&E News:

When the House Appropriations Committee considers a proposed $27.9 billion spending bill for the Interior Department, Forest Service and U.S. EPA this week, the debate will be more about gasoline prices than the merits of the bill itself.

Republicans plan on introducing amendments aimed at developing domestic resources of oil and gas, including the outer continental shelf (OCS), oil shale and Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, according to Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.)

Tiahrt, the ranking member of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, said Wednesday’s full committee markup will be all about energy.

“When it gets to the full committee it’s going to be a case about whether we pay above $4 for a gallon of gas or below $4,” he said.

Regardless of what happens in committee, Tiahrt said it is unlikely that the spending bill will ever make it to the House floor.

Tiahrt said he expects there may be a continuing resolution after the presidential election in November that will carry into the new administration, though Congress could pass some Defense-related spending bills, and even the Interior bill before then.

The subcommittee last week approved the spending bill by unanimous voice vote. Tiahrt said the subcommittee wanted to send a strong message to the full committee that they supported the funding proposal and should be treated separately from the energy debate that will ensue.

The only amendment considered by the subcommittee last week was one from Rep. John Peterson (R-Pa.) to lift a moratorium on exploring for oil and natural gas on the outer continental shelf. The amendment would allow for exploration from 50 miles to 200 miles offshore and allow for oil and natural gas preleasing and leasing activities to begin on the OCS.

In 2006, the Minerals Management Service estimated that undiscovered, technically recoverable resources on the entire OCS totaled 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

“This is completely misleading,” subcommittee Chairman Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) said last week of GOP efforts to open up the OCS, calling it a “red herring and desperate attempt” to open up more offshore areas when oil companies are barely using the areas that have leased now.

Noting that MMS also reports that 82 percent of natural gas reserves and 79 percent of its oil reserves in the OCS are in areas that are already open to drilling, Dicks said more focus should be on price speculation and other factors that affect the price of gasoline rather than just open more resources.

With the prospects low that any energy amendment introduced Wednesday would make it onto the House floor, let alone signed into law, observers say Wednesday’s debate will be more about getting the parties on the record about energy.

“With energy prices where they are, both parties are trying to present their prospective on what the government needs to be involved in responding to that,” said Lee Fuller, Independent Petroleum Association of America’s vice president for government relations. Interior and Forest Service

The $27.9 billion spending bill, more than $2 billion over President Bush’s request, would reverse proposed White House spending cuts for fiscal 2009, providing significant boosts in funding for national parks, fire suppression and wildlife refuges.

The bill includes $2.6 billion for the National Park Service, including a $158 million increase in funding for operational budgets at the parks, along with $175 million to jump-start an initiative to revitalize the deteriorating National Mall.

The Fish and Wildlife Service would get $1.4 billion. The National Wildlife Refuge system, an area of concern for the subcommittee’s leadership, would see its funding rise by $35 million to $469 million. The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Geological Survey would see minor increases over their current budgets, with BLM getting a 0.5 percent increase over its current funding level to $1.013 billion and USGS seeing its budget rise to $1.05 billion.

Indian schools and social services are the biggest beneficiaries of the bill with a proposed $6 billion budget for the Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a $350 million increase over the 2008 enacted levels.

For the Agriculture Department’s Forest Service, the spending bill restores almost $400 million in cuts proposed by the administration, providing an increase of $473 million for agency programs.

It also includes language that would prohibit the borrowing of funds from other agency priorities to fund wildfire suppression. Under the provision, no borrowing will be allowed unless the president submits a formal budget request to Congress to replace the funds. The request must be signed by the president before funds can be allocated.

Interior is concerned the rule would add an additional step to acquiring and replenishing funds. Another swing at royalty relief

The spending bill also carries Democratic language to address the flawed late-1990s deepwater oil and gas leases that could cost the federal government more than $14 billion.

The language seeks to ensure royalty payments from late 1990s Gulf of Mexico leases that currently allow royalty waivers regardless of energy prices. Deepwater leases Interior issued in 1998 and 1999 lack clauses – called “price thresholds” – that suspend the royalty waivers when prices exceed certain limits.

The provision from Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) would prevent companies holding these leases from participating in future lease sales. The provision was also included in last year’s House-passed Interior spending bill, and similar measures appeared in other energy bills the House has approved but never made it to the president’s desk. $700M boost for EPA

The spending bill also would increase U.S. EPA’s budget by nearly $700 million.

The legislation would provide the agency with $7.8 billion, restoring funding for key water and air programs that were drastically cut in the Bush administration’s budget proposal.

Chief among those is the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, a low-interest wastewater loan program that helps states construct water treatment facilities. The fund would receive $850 million in fiscal 2009 under the House bill, a nearly $300 million increase from the White House request of $555 million. The fiscal 2008 budget for the fund was $689 million.

Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle blasted the White House cut, calling the level of funding provided completely inadequate to deal with the nation’s wastewater and infrastructure needs.

The spending bill also would increase overall funding for science and technology from the $764 million requested by the White House to $793 million. Funding for environmental programs and management would rise $59 million.

Funding for Superfund cleanup would increase $20 million, and programs aimed at restoring and protecting prominent bodies of water would receive about $45 million more than in the Bush administration’s proposal.