White House budget proposal cuts funding for EPA, but GOP wants more

President Obama’s fiscal year 2012 budget plan would slash funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by roughly $1.3 billion while continuing the administration’s political collision with Republicans on climate change.

State funding for water infrastructure projects would take a big hit — losing almost $1 billion — while funding for Great Lakes restoration would also be scaled back.

Obama’s plan would provide roughly $9 billion for the agency overall, and would increase areas including enforcement and compliance.

“The Administration proposes $621 million, a $24 million increase for enforcement and compliance assurance activities, allowing the Agency to strengthen its monitoring of emissions in the field and enhance its ability to detect violations that impact public health and to collect, analyze, and disseminate compliance information to the public,” a White House summary notes.

Elsewhere, the plan touts efforts to bolster chemicals programs.

“The Administration supports efforts to address unreasonable risks posed by industrial chemicals, and the Budget proposes $71 million for chemical assessment and risk review. This includes $16 million in new funding to support additional chemical hazard assessments and strengthen chemical information management,” the White House notes.

But Capitol Hill Republicans have signaled that they want far deeper cuts to EPA, which is under fire over its plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, refineries, factories and other sources.

The House is expected to vote on a plan this week to continue federal spending through September, the end of the 2011 fiscal year. It would slash EPA spending by $3 billion and block funding for EPA’s climate change rules.

But the White House has attacked that plan, and looking ahead, Obama’s fiscal year 2012 proposal continues funding for climate programs.

“The Administration proposes $25 million for State grants to implement permitting programs tailored to GHG emissions. Additionally, EPA will continue to develop regulatory strategies to control GHG emissions from major stationary sources,” the budget summary notes.

It calls on Congress to pass a big energy bill while reiterating the White House’s greenhouse gas reduction goals. Cap-and-trade bills are politically dead for now, but the White House wants energy legislation including a “clean energy standard” for utilities that would require a major expansion in power generation from low-carbon sources.

“The President has called on the Congress to enact forward-looking energy legislation that would spur U.S. development of advanced, clean energy technologies to reduce the Nation’s dependence on oil, strengthen energy and national security, create new jobs, and restore America’s position as a global leader in efforts to mitigate climate change and address its consequences,” the budget plan states.