While receiving less attention in the news than the administration’s proposed 31 percent cut to EPA’s 2018 budget, the proposed cut of $1.8 billion (13 percent) for the Department of Interior (DOI) significantly restructures DOI’s top priorities. In testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke made it clear that the top priority of the budget and the department going forward is to “further the Administration’s America First national energy goals.”
Streamlined permitting and leasing
The proposed budget includes decreased funding for virtually every DOI program except those associated with fossil fuel energy development. The proposed increases include:
- A $10.2 million increase for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to update the Five-Year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program
- A $16.0 million increase for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) oil and gas (O&G) management program that overall would provide $75.9 million in appropriated funds focused on improving O&G permit application processing, streamlining leasing, and modernizing practices
- A $8.0 million increase for the BLM to reduce administrative processing times, simplify the lease application process, and improve the timeliness of completions of lease sale fair market value determinations
150 percent cut for land acquisition
The proposed funding reductions include cuts to DOI’s renewable energy programs. Those programs would receive about $78 million, which, according to Zinke, will be sufficient to “sustain the current pace of development at a level consistent with anticipated project interest.”
Also proposed is a $129 million cut, down to $54 million, for the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is used to acquire land, water, and interests to achieve natural, cultural, wildlife, and recreation management objectives. “The 2018 budget emphasizes taking care of our current assets, rather than adding more by purchasing new land,” testified Zinke.
Also:
- Reductions totaling $354 million are proposed for land conservation operations conducted by the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and BLM.
- About $300 million would be slashed from DOI’s tribal programs.
- DOI’s staff of 60,000 would be reduced by 4,000 full-time equivalents under the 2018 budget. The downsizing would be achieved by a combination of attrition, reassignments, and separation incentives, says Zinke, who adds that his intention is to reduce the size of office management positions and increase the number of DOI staff in the field.
Arctic drilling
All this would “devastate our national parks, wildlife refuges, and other public lands and betray the Secretary’s trust responsibility to native tribes,” commented Senator Maria Cantwell, ranking member of the Senate committee. “The president and Secretary Zinke’s priorities put the interests of the fossil fuel industry ahead of land interest by prioritizing onshore and offshore development and cutting funds to all other priorities.”
Zinke noted, as well, that the administration will propose legislation to allow O&G leasing in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, officially called the 1002 Area.The budget assumes lease sales would begin in 2022 or 2023.
This part of the proposal was welcomed by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who chairs the Senate committee. “Restoring access to our offshore resources and opening up the 1002 Area to responsible development will create thousands of new jobs and generate tens of billions of dollars of new revenues,” said Murkowski.
A video of Zinke’s testimony is available here.