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The Biden administration on Monday unveiled a $7.3 trillion Fiscal Year 2025 budget proposal to fund the federal government.
While the proposal is not expected to be enacted as written, it highlights the Biden administration’s policy priorities for the final year of his first term. In particular, the spending proposal requests a boost in funding for the federal agencies tasked with implementing projects to expand renewable energy development and combat climate change, including the Interior department, Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency. It also takes aim at federal subsidies for the oil and gas industry.
The Interior department budget request calls for $17.8 billion in order to advance Interior’s mission “through investments in wildfire management, tribal programs, ecosystem restoration, national park operations, western water infrastructure, and climate resilience.” Notably, Interior’s budget request includes allocating $189 million toward deploying renewable energy on public lands and waters. “The intensifying impacts of climate change are costing lives, disrupting livelihoods, and causing billions of dollars in damages,” the budget summary states.
Analysis: Chaco mineral withdrawal is protecting wildlife and ecosystems
On June 2, 2023, the Biden administration formalized a mineral withdrawal within a 10-mile radius around Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico to remove more than 336,400 acres from oil, gas, and mining development. A new Center for American Progress analysis finds that in addition to protecting the area’s cultural and archaeological values, the mineral withdrawal is also protecting more than 60,000 acres of New Mexico’s highest-value ecological resources and helping to protect wildlife. According to the analysis this includes more than 31,000 acres of the state’s most ecologically intact lands, those that are free of human modification and resembling their natural, untouched state, with minimal habitat and species loss. Similarly, the withdrawal area also includes 27,000 acres which support species migrations by protecting migratory pathways for big game such as mule deer, elk, and pronghorn.
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National wildlife refuges are super-important, as the only national public lands organized around the needs of wildlife, yet funding from Congress is already nowhere near what is needed to manage the refuges or even keep up with the cost of living.”
