From green recovery to green budget

On Tuesday, President Obama signed into law the stimulus bill (see our blog post), the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The bill has an estimated $6.1 billion for North Carolina. Journalists, state legislators, and wonks have immediately started teasing out what’s available for environmental and other projects. Still, the monies coming to North Carolina will not fill the hole in the state’s budget shortfall, and Gov. Perdue has announced she’ll be looking for more cuts in this year’s state spending. The General Assembly will have to tackle the 2009-2010 budget later this Spring.

Meanwhile, at the federal level, crafting a 2010 budget won’t be easy either. To that end, 25 of the largest environmental and conservation organizations in the country have just released the Green Budget for fiscal year 2010. The report outlines priorities for federal spending on lands and wildlife, energy, environment and public health, oceans, transportation and other programs.

You can download the full report at: www.saveourenvironment.org.

A key recommendation of the report is repair of the federal EPA’s capacity to enforce environmental laws. That capacity was systematically dismantled over the last eight years, and we need it to back up and support our state enforcement efforts. At the press conference [mp3 audio file] presenting the budget, North Carolina’s own Peter Raabe, from American Rivers, also called for increased federal spending on pollution control and steps to protect public health in the face of climate change. The budget also outlines areas where federal investment can generate green jobs and help shift us towards a sustainable economy.

As our state lawmakers prepare to write next year’s state budget, it’s increasingly clear that we desperately need a stronger federal budget and active federal presence to supplement and undergird our state program. Every useful environmental program funded by Congress gives our state legislators a little breathing room to focus state funds on the biggest threats to public health and our environment. Let’s hope both federal and state lawmakers are paying close attention to the priorities outlined in the Green Budget.