Draft 2018 budget proposal obtained by Axios reveals
a 70-percent cut
The
Trump administration is weighing putting the Energy Department's budget for its
renewable energy and energy efficiency program on the chopping block with a
proposal to slash it by 70 percent.
That's
according to a draft 2018 budget proposal obtained by Axios.
It
shows $613 million for sustainable transportation in 2017, but just $184
million for 2018—a nearly 70-percent drop. There was $451 million for renewable
power in the budget for 2017 but $134 million proposed for 2018—a 70-percent
drop. There was $762 million for energy efficiency in 2017, and $160 proposed
for 2018. That's a 79-percent drop.
In
total, the data obtained by Axios show that Energy
Department's office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy budget went
from $2,073 million in 2017 to a proposed $636 million for 2018, which marks a
nearly 70-percent decrease.
The news outlet's Amy Harder writes that the plan is unlikely to get congressional approval but is important nonetheless, as "[i]t puts a low marker down to negotiate with Congress. The lower the starting point, the lower the ultimate numbers could well end up."
Rep.
Keith Ellison reacted to the news on Twitter, writing:
"Cutting renewable energy by 70% will not only cost us jobs, it will
worsen public health & hurt our environment!"
A
recent analysis of Department of Energy data by the Sierra Club backs up the
Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair's claim about the job costs.
"Clean
energy jobs, including those from solar, wind, energy efficiency, smart grid
technology, and battery storage, vastly outnumber all fossil fuel jobs
nationwide from the coal, oil, and gas sectors.
That includes jobs in power
generation, mining, and other forms of fossil fuel extraction," the
conservation group found.
Nationwide,
"clean energy jobs outnumber all fossil fuel jobs by over 2.5 to 1; and
they outnumber all jobs in coal and gas by 5 to 1," the group wrote.
The
Energy Department's offices for nuclear power and fossil-fuel energy, would
also be cut, Axios also reported,
though by a smaller margin—31 percent and 54 percent respectively.
The
new reporting comes as the U.K.-based accounting firm Ernst & Young's most
recent Renewable Energy
Country Attractiveness Index shows that the U.S. has fallen
from the top spot to number three.
It's a less attractive to market to invest
in renewables thanks in part to President Donald Trump's order to
gut his predecessor's Clean Power Plan.
"A
marked shift in U.S. policy has resulted in the demise of the Clean Power Plan,
which has made renewable investors more nervous about possible reductions to
the Investment Tax Credit and Production Tax Credit. Concerns also include if gas
prices continue to remain low and transmission capacity remains stagnant,"
the index states.
The
most attractive market is now China, with India coming in at number two.
And
those two countries, Climate Action Tracker said Monday,
"are set to overachieve their Paris Agreement climate pledges."
Trump, meanwhile, has aimed a "wrecking ball"
at the climate.
"The
highly adverse rollbacks of U.S. climate policies by the Trump Administration,
if fully implemented and not compensated by other actors, are projected to
flatten U.S. emissions instead of continuing on a downward trend," said
professor Niklas Höhne of NewClimate Institute.
