President Obama today proposed trimming U.S. EPA's fiscal 2013 budget by $105 million, marking the third time the administration has sought to cut the agency's funding to compensate for rising deficits.

Obama's budget would give EPA $8.3 billion, a 1.2 percent decrease from the $8.4 billion Congress provided in its omnibus spending package last year.

The biggest cuts would come from the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds, through which money flows into the states. Obama proposed cutting those funds to $2 billion from $2.38 billion.

Obama's budget also trims $33 million from the Superfund hazardous waste cleanup program (see related story).

Some environmental groups are praising Obama's proposal.

"Overall, this forward-thinking budget would help America continue building on the progress toward a clean energy economy that creates jobs, improves our health and protects our environment," Scott Slesinger of the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a statement.

Broadly, however, the administration touted savings through eliminating "outdated, underperforming and overlapping programs."

"For 2013, the administration terminates $50 million in EPA programs, including programs that overlap other federal agency missions," the budget states.

For example, the budget would zero out a state grant program for the removal of radon, from $8 million. The State Indoor Radon Grant Program, the administration said, would "refocus" the agency's efforts toward supporting the Federal Radon Action Plan, a multiyear, multiagency agenda for reducing the risk of exposure to the toxic gas.

The action plan, the budget says, will have a "greater impact on public health."

Similarly, Obama is calling for zeroing out the budget for EPA's beach grant program, which received $10 million last year. The administration justified that cut by noting that because of previous work by EPA, "many ... non-Federal agencies now have the ability and knowledge to run their own programs without federal support."

Obama is also proposing continued cuts to grants that go to states for retrofitting cars and trucks to reduce air pollution from diesel engines. The Diesel Emissions Reduction Grant Program would see a cut from $30 million to $15 million.

Those cuts drew fire from clean air advocates.

"They continue to try cutting clean diesel grants," Clean Air Watch's Frank O'Donnell said. "That is utter folly given the need to clean up dangerous soot from existing diesel engines. The budget is largely a political statement. The statement about EPA is that they want it to be relatively low-profile."

The administration also noted that it continues to call for funding the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to the tune of $300 million, the same amount enacted by Congress for fiscal 2012.

Climate change, air, water

In its EPA budget overview, the administration reiterated a commitment made during the 2009 international climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and by 83 percent by midcentury.

"The President has called on the Congress to enact forward-looking legislation that would spur U.S. development of advanced, clean energy technologies to reduce U.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 overview says.

In his State of the Union speech last month, Obama conceded that the political climate is not ripe for the carbon dioxide cap-and-trade bill that passed the House in 2009, but he said he hopes such a measure will be enacted eventually. In the meantime, he called on Congress to pass a bill mandating that electric utilities draw a set amount of their power from low-carbon sources, including renewable energy.

Despite the budget request's mention of climate change, the administration's request for climate and air programs adhered closely to what Congress approved last year.

Obama is asking for $249 million to support clean air and climate change research and analysis under EPA's science and technology budget, compared with an estimated $246 million enacted for fiscal 2012. That compares with $272 million in fiscal 2011.

The budget also would continue lowered funding levels for climate and air regulation and management. While $503 million was appropriated for those programs in fiscal 2011, the total dipped to $468 million in fiscal 2012. The administration's budget would call for $473 million.

Popular state water infrastructure programs would also be cut under the president's budget. The Clean Water State Revolving Fund would receive $1.175 billion, down from $1.466 billion enacted in fiscal 2012 and $1.522 billion in fiscal 2011.

The Drinking Water State Revolving Fund would be funded at $850 million, a cut of $68 million from enacted levels.

The budget overview promises that, despite the cuts, efforts would be made to ensure that the most deserving projects received the funding they needed.

"EPA will work to target assistance to small and underserved communities with limited ability to repay loans, while maintaining State program integrity," the overview says. It adds that many of the projects formerly funded by those two revolving loan funds might receive access to capital through the administration's proposed infrastructure bank.

Comparison with 'Green Budget'

While funding is important, most of the administration's battles with Congress in the past year have centered on so-called policy riders that would constrict EPA's authority to regulate various emissions.

In the year since they regained the majority, House Republicans have pushed through numerous bills to slash EPA's greenhouse gas authority and to suspend new rules for air toxics, smog and soot.

The Obama administration and the Democrat-led Senate have responded with veto threats and rhetoric linking air quality rules to public health.

This year's relatively modest funding request is unlikely to please Obama's environmentalist allies, who last week called for a fiscal 2013 budget that would support the promulgation and enforcement of air quality rules they said would help the economy by providing incentives for new industries and encouraging efficiency.

"We must continue to support a proper scientific approach to regulatory requirements," a coalition of environmental groups said in their 2013 Green Budget report (Greenwire, Feb. 10).

"EPA rulemaking, and the enforcement of those rules by EPA and its state partners, need to be properly funded so that the agency can carry out its job as outlined in numerous congressional statutes: to protect the nation's public health and environment," the environmentalists added.

The groups said that EPA must conduct a variety of scientific, economic and engineering analyses before issuing a rule, and that Congress' consistent underfunding of EPA has slowed the process of updating Clean Air Act rules.