House Republicans Massively Chop Funding for Wildlife, Clean Water and Air

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July 15, 2011 |

The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee has approved a restrictive spending bill for Fiscal Year 2012 that allows uranium mining on public lands adjacent to the Grand Canyon, prohibits funding for the U.S. EPA to set greenhouse gas standards, and exempts oil and utility companies from the Clean Air Act.

he EPA's budget would be cut by $1.5 billion and the Interior Department would take a $715 million hit under the bill passed by the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.

In total, the bill includes $27.5 billion in spending - a reduction of $2.1 billion below last year's level and $3.8 billion below President Barack Obama's budget request for the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, and other independent and related agencies.

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"This bill would substantially diminish the capacity of EPA to carry out its responsibilities - which may actually be the goal of some of my colleagues on the other side," Dicks said. "But the repercussions will be felt across the nation, including an ever-growing backlog of water treatment infrastructure projects and a decline in air and water quality."

"This legislation should be called the "Pro-Pollution Omnibus Bill," particularly given the 25 policy riders it includes, which read like a wish list for industries looking to ignore the Clean Air and Water Acts," said Moran. "They even go so far as to open up federal lands adjacent to the Grand Canyon for uranium mining."

The bill:

allows uranium mining on federal lands adjacent to the Grand Canyon by lifting the moratorium on uranium mining along the Colorado River, potentially exposing 17 million people, dependent on the river for drinking water, to radioactive waste.

paves the way for more mountain-top mining by blocking protections against toxic chemicals from mining waste running into our streams.

protects BP and makes schools less safe by rejecting additional funding for the air toxic monitoring at schools or for the Deepwater Horizon litigation.

allows thousands of pounds of pollutants into the air by exempting big oil companies like Shell, Exxon and BP from the Clean Air Act for any new drilling area outside the Gulf of Mexico.
increases the odds of another oil spill by rejecting requested funds for additional staff and funding for increased facility inspections on offshore drilling rigs.

prohibits funding for the Wild Lands Secretarial Order, which Republicans say would negatively impact ranching, energy production, recreation, and other activities on public lands. A similar measure passed the House in the FY 2011 continuing budget resolution.

prohibits funding for the EPA to regulate levels of particulate matter in the air, including farm dust, under the Clean Air Act.

prohibits funding for the EPA to develop additional financial assurance requirements for hard rock mining operations.

prohibits states from receiving EPA Great Lakes funding if they have adopted ballast water requirements that are more stringent than federal requirements.

directs the EPA to do a cumulative assessment of the impacts of EPA regulations.

prohibits funding for the Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology rule and the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, also called the "Transport" rule, which both require power plants to limit toxic air emissions. Both rules respond to court orders.

The bill is especially damaging to the nation's wildlife says a former head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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Ranking Member Moran points out that "the vast majority of the EPA's funds pass through to states and localities that are already squeezed by budget cuts. These infrastructure projects create jobs in communities all across the country and provide one of the most basic services taxpayers expect: clean water."

"The Bush administration's EPA administrator estimated that there was a $688 billion nationwide backlog of clean water infrastructure projects, and that total is even larger today," Moran said.

"That backlog will not disappear if we just ignore it but, as we have seen in so many cases this year," said Moran, "the Republican leadership has decided to push this problem farther down the road."

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