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President Joe Biden proposed a $4 billion increase in funding for the Interior Department in his 2023 budget request to Congress. Over a quarter of the $18 billion spending request would go toward climate change programs, including $325 million to reduce wildfire risk and restore burned land.
The budget would also prioritize the president's "America the Beautiful" initiative, including the 30x30 goal of protecting 30 percent of America's lands and waters by the end of the decade. The Interior spending plan includes $25.5 million to create the American Conservation Stewardship Atlas, which would track progress towards the goal.
The president's plan would continue onshore and offshore oil and gas leasing, but it also calls for significant increases in funding for renewable energy development, especially for offshore wind development.
At the Bureau of Land Management, the budget proposes new conservation efforts to protect the greater sage grouse and its habitat, including new land use plans to address declining population and the effects of climate change on the sagebrush steppe.
The head of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, is scheduled to testify before Congress this week to outline the budget request.
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People just took to it. It was like an organic process. It was private property, but people were like, ‘No, this is a park!’”
