FACT SHEET: President Biden’s Budget Lowers Energy Costs, Combats the Climate Crisis, and Advances Environmental Justice

In the two years since taking office, the President’s leadership to tackle the climate crisis has boosted U.S. manufacturing and deployment of cost-cutting clean energy technologies, put the United States on a durable path aligned with limiting warming to 1.5 °C, galvanized global action by partners and the private sector, and advanced environmental justice. On the first day of the Biden-Harris Administration, the President rejoined the Paris Agreement—strengthening international partnerships that are key to addressing the climate crisis on the global stage. He set an ambitious domestic goal to reduce greenhouse gas pollution 50 to 52 percent from 2005 levels in 2030 and has rallied countries around the world to make their own bold contributions. 

In signing the Inflation Reduction Act last year, the President also secured the largest investment to advance energy security and combat climate change in American history—all while lowering energy costs for the American people. The Administration is continuing to implement the Inflation Reduction Act, which is already galvanizing our clean energy transition and making clean and energy efficient technologies more affordable for American families. At the same time, the Administration has launched numerous initiatives to accelerate America’s clean energy future and advance environmental justice—from jumpstarting an electric transportation future that is Made in America, to announcing new climate-smart agriculture and forestry initiatives, to investing in the places that kept America’s lights on for generations, to implementing the President’s Justice40 Initiative that ensures 40 percent of the benefits of Federal investments in climate and clean energy are delivered to disadvantaged communities. The Budget invests in clean energy across America, bringing jobs to rural communities and cities, leaving no one behind.

The Budget builds on this historic progress by advancing clean energy and investing in climate science, strengthening resilience, advancing environmental justice, and doubling down on America’s global climate leadership. The President’s Budget invests a total of $52.2 billion in discretionary budget authority to tackle the climate crisis, $10.9 billion more than FY 2023 or an increase of nearly 26 percent. The combination of these and other long-term investments:

CREATES JOBS BUILDING CLEAN ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE AND LOWERS ENERGY, WATER, AND FUEL BILLS FOR AMERICAN FAMILIES

• Creates Jobs Building Clean Energy Infrastructure. The Budget invests $4.5 billion in clean energy across America, bringing jobs to rural communities and cities, leaving no one behind. For example, the Budget includes nearly $50 million for the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technology Office to assist communities and low-income households in continuing to decrease the cost of installing rooftop solar and solar plus storage on homes across the country.

• Cuts Energy and Water Bills. The Budget would cut energy bills for American families so that they pay less each month. The Budget supports clean energy workforce and infrastructure projects across the Nation and invests $1.8 billion in low-income Americans’ homes, including $375 million for DOE Weatherization Assistance grants, nearly $750 million to support energy efficiency and resilience in HUD-assisted and financed developments, $800 million for HHS LIHEAP funded efficiency upgrades, and $50 million to launch a new Energy Burden Reduction Pilot by DOE to lower energy costs while also reducing emissions through efficiency, electrification, and distributed energy resource installation retrofits in in at least 3,000 low-income households.

• Supports Clean Energy Projects at Tribal Colleges and Universities. The Budget includes $83 million to electrify Tribal homes and transition Tribal Colleges and Universities to clean energy. It also includes $13 million to provide grid planning and technical assistance to Tribes and other communities to ensure they have access to clean and reliable electricity.

• Invests in Building Clean Energy and Lowering Energy Costs in Rural Communities. The Budget provides $30 million for grants and $1 billion for loan guarantees for clean energy systems and energy efficiency improvements for farmers and rural small businesses. The Budget also provides $6.5 billion in authority for rural electric loans to support additional clean energy, energy storage, and transmission projects that would create good-paying jobs. In addition, the Budget includes $15 million in funding to support the creation of the Rural Clean Energy Initiative to provide critical technical assistance to rural electric providers and help to achieve the President’s clean energy goals.

• Accelerates American Manufacturing and Deployment of Clean Energy Technologies. The Budget includes $75 million for the Department of Energy to carry out the President’s recent determinations under the Defense Production Act to enhance domestic supply chain capacity for key climate technologies. To build on the resurgence of American manufacturing, the Budget complements funding provided in the Inflation Reduction Act by providing robust support for Loan Program Office administrative expenses to originate and oversee the ambitious growth in the financing of clean energy, projects supporting the repurposing of legacy energy infrastructure, and advanced technology vehicle manufacturing projects envisioned in the Inflation Reduction Act.   

• Improves the Energy Efficiency and Climate Resilience of HUD-Assisted Housing. The Budget provides $3.2 billion for public housing modernization and $300 million to improve the energy efficiency, climate resilience, and physical condition of the public housing stock. To complement these investments, the Budget provides $7.5 billion in mandatory funding for comprehensive modernization of targeted public housing communities.

• Promotes Resilience in Rural Housing. The Budget requires that all of USDA’s funding for construction or rehabilitation of rural housing be targeted to projects that improve energy or water efficiency, implement green features, or address climate resilience. These requirements will improve the adaptability and resilience of rural housing to climate change.

• Establishes a Novel Regional Energy-Water Demonstration Project. The Budget provides funding for a regional U.S. Energy-Water Demonstration Facility funded within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to solve the critical and interlinked challenges at the energy, water and carbon nexus. A successful demonstration will be designed around the needs of stakeholders in a defined national watershed region or catchment and enhance clean energy benefits to a regional community.

• Increases Permitting Capacity. The Budget invests in environmental permitting programs that will expedite delivery of new and modernized infrastructure. The Budget also proposes to expand existing transfer authority by enabling Federal agencies to transfer funds provided under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries to improve efficiencies and increase capacity for environmental planning and consultation.  Together with existing law, this proposal would accelerate and improve environmental reviews in support of responsible development of priority infrastructure projects and energy solutions. The Budget supports efforts at the Department of the Interior to meet the Administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and also provides $60 million to expand offshore wind permitting activities at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to allow NOAA to use the best available science to help meet the Administration’s deployment goal while protecting biodiversity and promoting sustainable ocean co-use.

• Advances Climate-Friendly Transportation Networks. The Budget provides $60.1 billion for the Federal-Aid Highway program, $1.2 billion for the National Infrastructure Project Assistance program, and $560 million for the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grants to support projects that, among other priorities, address climate change by increasing resilience and lowering emissions, including by expanding our Nation’s passenger rail network and building out a national network of electric vehicle chargers. The Budget also fully reflects funding for highway climate programs provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including $1.5 billion for charging and alternative fueling infrastructure, $1.3 billion for the Carbon Reduction Program, and $1.8 billion for the PROTECT resilience program.

• Invests in American Made, Zero-Emission Vehicles through Federal Procurement. The Budget invests $801 million across 21 agencies for zero emission fleet vehicles and associated charging or fueling infrastructure. This investment will provide an immediate, clear, and stable source of demand to help accelerate American industrial capacity to produce clean vehicles and components, and includes dedicated funds for USPS charging infrastructure.

• Accelerates Transition Toward Net-Zero Emissions Aviation. The Budget provides $570 million for NASA green aviation initiatives, including partnerships with industry to develop hybrid-electric jet engines, research to better understand aviation’s non-carbon climate impacts, and technology development to increase fuel efficiency while simultaneously enabling more widespread use of sustainable aviation fuel.

MAKES HISTORIC INVESTMENTS IN SCIENCE AND RESEARCH TO CONTINUE TO LOWER THE COST OF CLEAN ENERGY 

• Invests Historic Levels of Funding in the Bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act. The Budget provides $25 billion, up approximately $6.5 billion from the 2023 level, for CHIPS and Science Act-authorized activities. This includes $11.3 billion at the National Science Foundation, $8.8 billion at DOE’s Office of Science, $1 billion at NIST and more than $4 billion at the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.

• Makes Historic Investments in Climate Science and Cutting-Edge Clean Energy Innovation.  The Budget provides $16.5 billion to support climate science and clean energy innovation, proposing $5.1 billion to fund a broad portfolio of research to improve understanding of our changing climate and inform adaptation and resilience measures across multiple agencies, including the Department of the Interior, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Commerce, National Science Foundation, and others. The Budget supports U.S. preeminence in developing innovative technologies that accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy by investing more than $11.3 billion to boost American innovation and reestablish American leadership in clean energy innovation.

• Supports the Biden-Harris Net-Zero Game Changers Initiative. The Budget includes over $4 billion to support the Initiative’s goal to identify, prioritize, and accelerate innovation in game-changing technologies where transformative progress can help the U.S. reach its net-zero 2050 climate goal and support global decarbonization. The Budget invests across the government in five initial game-changing focus areas: $282 million for net-zero low-greenhouse gas building heating and cooling research, development, and demonstration; $580 million for net-zero aviation research, development, and demonstration; $1 billion for net-zero grid research, development, and demonstration; $1 billion for game changing net-zero fusion; and more than $1.1 billion for net-zero manufacturing and circular economy research, development, and demonstration.

• Helps Plan for a New National Lab at a Historically Black College or University, Tribal College or University, or Minority Serving Institution. The Budget invests $35 million in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for the initial planning of and a new solicitation for a new laboratory at a Historically Black College and University, Tribal College or University, or Minority Serving Institution.

• Restores American Leadership in Agricultural Innovation and Research. The Budget restores American innovation in agriculture by providing a total of more than $4 billion for agricultural research, education, and outreach, including $370 million to increase capacity among historically underserved populations. The Budget provides $7 billion, $2 billion over 2023 enacted levels, for climate-related funding at USDA, including a total of $612 million for the Department’s core climate-related R&D activities. Additionally, the Budget invests in ensuring that innovative products can come to market safely and efficiently with improved regulatory review.

• Bolsters our Understanding of Earth Systems Science. The Budget provides $2.5 billion for NASA’s Earth Science program, which will enhance our understanding of Earth systems and provide information to tackle the climate crisis and mitigate natural hazards.

CUTS CLIMATE POLLUTION

• Addresses Hard to Decarbonize Industrial Processes. The Budget supports more than $1.2 billion in DOE industrial decarbonization activities. The Budget considers the importance of strategically supporting U.S. industrial decarbonization through innovation, targeted investment, and technical assistance. The Budget encourages adoption of industrial decarbonization solutions including through the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) and expanded research and development efforts in the Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office. The Budget includes $160 million for the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations to support at least two large-scale industrial decarbonization projects directly benefitting disadvantaged communities.

• Reduces HFC Pollution. The Budget includes $64.4 million at EPA to implement the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act and continue phasing out potent greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).  The Budget also includes investments to support the private sector in calculating their GHG emissions and climate risk and setting science-based climate targets, as well as investments to embed the economic impacts of climate change and decarbonization efforts within Government economic projects.  

• Sequesters Carbon through Restoring Aquatic Ecosystems. The Budget invests in the restoration of some of the Nation’s most unique aquatic ecosystems, such as the Chesapeake Bay, the Upper Mississippi River, the Great Lakes, and the Louisiana Coast. The Army Corps of Engineers is undertaking an analysis of how aquatic ecosystem restoration projects can offset greenhouse gases emissions by promoting carbon sequestration on a carbon lifecycle basis for each project. 

• Increases Global Energy Security, Infrastructure, and Resilience. The Budget supports the President’s pledges to more than quadruple international climate finance and to provide more than $3 billion for the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE).  This includes a $1.6 billion contribution to the Green Climate Fund and a $1.2 billion loan to the Clean Technology Fund. The Budget also advances new tools, such as loan guarantees, to re-assert U.S. leadership in the Indo-Pacific to finance energy security and infrastructure projects and reduce reliance on volatile energy supplies and prices. 

PROTECTS CLEAN AIR AND WATER, ADVANCES ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, AND DELIVERS FOR COMMUNITIES LEFT BEHIND

• Advances Environmental Justice and Equity. The Budget bolsters the Administration’s efforts on environmental justice by investing nearly $1.8 billion across EPA and over $150 million at DOE in environmental justice initiatives, including to advance President Biden’s Justive40 Initiative. The Budget includes $15 million for a new fellowship at NSF that would fund researchers studying disparate impacts of climate change. The Budget provides $48 million for Tribal climate resilience, adaptation, and relocation programs at the Department of the Interior, supporting sovereignty as Tribal communities tackle the impacts of climate change. The Budget also ensures Federal agencies will have the staff and resources they need to advance equity and to promote environmental, health, and civil rights protection for communities nationwide, to fulfill the Administration’s whole-of-government equity and environmental justice objectives.

• Helps Provide Technical Assistance. The Budget provides $91 million forEPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights to provide technical assistance to support capacity building for communities to advance equity and justice.

• Supports Energy Communities. The Budget includes almost $7 billion, an increase of approximately $1 billion from FY 2023 enacted, in discretionary funding for programs and initiatives across the Federal Government that support economic revitalization, job creation, and other priority needs in hard-hit coal, oil and gas, and power plant communities. This funding includes: $235 million for the Appalachian Regional Commission, including $72 million for the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative that targets Federal resources to help Appalachian communities that have been affected by job losses in coal mining, power plant operations, and coal-related supply chain industries; $311 million for the Department of the Interior to remediate orphaned oil and gas wells and reclaim abandoned mine lands on Federal and non-Federal lands, including $30 million to address abandoned hardrock mine sites through the Department’s Energy Community Revitalization Program; $84 million for the Economic Development Administration’s Assistance to Coal Communities program to assist communities and regions severely impacted by the declining use of coal through activities that support economic diversification, job creation, capital investment, workforce development, and re-employment opportunities; and $20 million to support the Department of Labor’s (DOL) role in the multi-agency POWER+ Initiative and $67 million for DOL’s Workforce Opportunities for Rural Communities, a program administered in partnership with the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Delta Regional Authority, and the Northern Border Regional Commission that aims to help these communities develop local and regional workforce development strategies that promote long-term economic stability and opportunities for workers, especially those connected to the energy industry.

• Reduces Health and Environmental Hazards for At-Risk Communities. The Budget includes $8.3 billion for DOE’s Environmental Management program to support the cleanup of communities used for nuclear weapons production. The Budget also provides approximately $356 million for EPA’s Superfund program to continue cleaning up some of the Nation’s most contaminated land. In addition, an estimated $2.5 billion in Superfund tax revenue will be available to EPA in 2024.

• Upgrades the Nation’s Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure. The Budget provides EPA more than $4 billion for water infrastructure. These resources would advance efforts to upgrade drinking water and wastewater infrastructure nationwide, with a focus on decreasing health disparities in underserved and rural communities that have historically been overlooked.

• Tackles Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Pollution.  PFAS are a set of man-made chemicals that threaten the health and safety of communities across the Nation, disproportionately impacting historically disadvantaged communities. The Budget provides approximately $170 million for EPA to continue working toward commitments made in the 2021 PFAS Strategic Roadmap, including: increasing knowledge of PFAS impacts to human health and ecological effects; restricting use to prevent PFAS from entering the air, land, and water; and remediating PFAS that have been released into the environment.

• Protects Against Climate-Related Health Risks. The Budget provides $110 million for CDC’s Climate and Health program to expand the program to all states and territories to identify potential health effects associated with climate change and implement health adaptation plans.

• Researches the Health Impacts of Climate Change. The Budget provides $179 million at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, $25 million above 2023 enacted level, to support research aimed at understanding the health impacts of climate change.

• Advances Climate and Health Equity Workstreams. The Budget provides $4.65 million for HHS’s Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE), which under the leadership of the Assistant Secretary of Health, serves as a department-wide hub for convening, coordination and oversight of climate change related efforts. This funding includes $1.65 million for the newly established Office of Environmental Justice within OCCHE. 

• Increases Global Energy Security, Infrastructure, and Resilience. The Budget supports the President’s pledges to more than quadruple international climate finance and to provide more than $3 billion for the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE). This includes a $1.6 billion contribution to the Green Climate Fund and a $1.2 billion loan to the Clean Technology Fund. The Budget also advances new tools, such as loan guarantees, to re-assert U.S. leadership in the Indo-Pacific to finance energy security and infrastructure projects and reduce reliance on volatile energy supplies and prices.

INCREASES RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE-DRIVEN NATURAL DISASTERS AND CUTS THE COSTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE TO AMERICAN FAMILIES

• Bolsters Community Resilience to Climate Change. The Budget invests more than $24 billion for climate resilience across DOI, USDA, DHS, the Department of Defense, and other agencies to help build communities’ resilience to floods, wildfires, storms, extreme heat, and drought brought on by climate change, expand conservation and ecosystem management, strengthen America’s natural disaster response capabilities, increase the resilience of rural housing to the impacts of climate change while reducing rent burdens, and ensure the resilience of our nation’s defense to climate change. The Budget helps State and local communities, Tribes, and Territories build climate resilience through investing $3.3 billion in various Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant programs, and investing over $500 million for flood hazard mapping, including new data to support future flood conditions, and funding to sustain the Civilian Climate Corps.

• Strengthens the Nation’s Frontline Defenses Against Catastrophic Wildfires and Provides Long-Term Investments in the Wildland Firefighting Workforce. As both the frequency and intensity of catastrophic wildfires are expected to increase due to climate change, the Budget provides for critical mitigation efforts and invests in America’s Federal wildland firefighting workforce. The Budget invests in the Federal wildland firefighting workforce by ensuring that no Federal wildland firefighter will make less than $15 an hour and by creating a new comprehensive and equitable compensation structure. Additionally, the Budget increases the size of the workforce and supports additional mental and physical health services for the workforce. Together, these efforts would help address long-standing recruitment and retention challenges, build upon the historic reforms in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and ensure that the workforce receives the enhanced support it needs to continue meeting evolving mission demands. The Budget also provides USDA with $323 million to increase the scale of fuel and restoration treatments within high-risk “firesheds” and DOI with $314 to help reduce the risk and severity of wildfires through fuels management and restore lands devastated by catastrophic fire. These risk mitigation efforts serve as an important part of the Administration’s comprehensive, nationwide response to the threat of catastrophic wildfire to natural resources, communities, and infrastructure.

• Increases Resilience to the Effects of Drought. The Budget helps ensure communities across the West have access to a resilient and reliable water supply by investing in rural water projects, water conservation, development of desalination technologies, and water recycling and reuse projects. The Budget complements the nearly $1.7 billion provided in 2024 for western water infrastructure through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, as well as the nearly $4.6 billion that was provided by the Inflation Reduction Act for drought mitigation and domestic water supply projects through the Bureau of Reclamation. The Budget provides $375 million to address the ongoing drought in the western United States through the Bureau of Reclamation, including funding for WaterSMART, Central Valley Project drought activities, and implementation funding to conserve water in the Colorado River System, which is at historically low levels. The budget also requests new funding at DOE to invest in desalination.

• Invests in Flood Risk Management and Mitigation. The Budget invests in programs that help communities address the risks associated with floods. Investments include over $1.9 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers to address coastal and inland flood risks and $175 million for flood mitigation grants through FEMA. In addition, as part of a long-term strategy to reduce repetitive flood losses, the Administration will convene an interagency working group, including the Corps, FEMA, and NOAA, to develop a methodology that Federal agencies could use to identify coastal communities across the Nation that are likely to have the highest risk of repetitive storm-related flooding over the next 50 years without further measures to reduce this risk, with the intention of informing future Federal investments in these areas. The Administration looks forward to working with the Congress on bipartisan principles for these and other flood risk management investments.

• Helps Farmers withstand the Impact of Climate Change. The Budget provides $208 million above the 2023 enacted level, for a total of $1.2 billion, to increase conservation adoption and farm income across privately owned land through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). This builds upon and supports the generational investments provided through the Inflation Reduction Act to increase the voluntary adoption of conservation practices that sequester carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with agricultural production. The Budget also includes a mandatory proposal to provide sustained incentives for cover crop usage, to improve climate resilience by reducing soil erosion and compaction, increasing soil organic matter, and limiting nutrient runoff—and this incentive program is a key part of motivating agricultural producers to adopt and maintain the practice.

RESTORES AND CONSERVES AMERICA’S LANDS AND WATERS AND ADVANCES NATURE-BASED CLIMATE SOLUTIONS

• Strengthens Voluntary Conservation. The Budget supports efforts to restore, conserve and protect our natural world. The Budget invests significant resources across the six key focus areas in the America the Beautiful initiative, invests in providing greenspace in underserved communities; supports tribal co-stewardship and co-management; and the first-ever national nature assessment.  The Budget also provides $25.5 million to develop the Conservation and Stewardship Atlas, which will help inform conservation decisions. 

• Increases Access to Nature and Parks. An estimated 100 million Americans do not have an accessible park within a ten-minute walk of their home. Communities of color and low-income communities have disproportionately less access to nature’s benefits including clean water, clean air, and open spaces for recreation. The Budget allocates $135 million to the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Program to develop high-quality recreation opportunities in economically disadvantaged urban communities. The Budget provides $3.8 billion for the National Park Service, $289 million over the 2023 enacted level; this includes a new $32 million initiative to build a more equitable National Park System, with investments to expand tribal co-stewardship of national parks, address transportation barriers between parks and underserved communities, improve park accessibility for visitors and employees with disabilities, and stand up the recently established African American Burial Grounds Preservation Program.

• Invests in Addressing the Biodiversity Crisis. The Budget increases biodiversity and halts nature loss by providing targeted increases for key biodiversity programs including funding for Endangered Species Act implementation, the National Wildlife Refuge System, migratory birds, fish and aquatic conservation, and international conservation.  The Budget includes $20 million for the Coastal Program and $80 million to support the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, a flagship program for voluntary conservation on private lands – a key focus of the America the Beautiful initiative.
  
• Informs Land Management Practices to Increase Climate Mitigation. The Budget makes investments at DOI to identify innovative biologic and geologic mitigation opportunities, and measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions and sinks on Federal lands.

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