The Obama administration today proposed a significant cut in requested conservation funding but maintained its committment to aggressively expand renewable energy and raise revenues from oil and gas development on public lands.

The Interior Department today requested $11.4 billion in fiscal 2013, an increase of about 1 percent over current levels but substantially lower than the $12.2 billion it requested a year ago.

The agency said it remains committed to protecting critical landscapes and infrastructure, while promoting outdoor recreation in national parks, refuges and other public lands throughout the country, a key focus of the president's Great Outdoors initiative.

At the same time, the department said it will continue to seek new revenues from oil and gas producers through new fees for inspection and nonproducing leases and royalty reforms, proposals that mostly fell flat in the last session of Congress.

The budget lays out legislative proposals to save roughly $2 billion over the next decade from oil, gas, coal and other mineral revenues on federal lands and waters.

It also requests an 18 percent boost in funding for renewable energy development on public lands over last year's request, a sign that the Obama administration will continue its aggressive build out of wind, solar, geothermal and transmission on public lands and water.

The administration today set a goal of permitting 11,000 megawatts of new solar, wind and geothermal electricity generation by the end of 2013.

In a move likely to please fiscal conservatives, Obama requested $450 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a significant drop from the $900 million it requested for 2012, the fund's maximum yearly authorized amount. The 48-year-old program is the government's main vehicle for acquiring new lands, consolidating habitats and purchasing easements on private lands. The request is still slightly above the currently appropriated amount.

"$450 million is still a very strong commitment given the fiscal realities we're facing," said Alan Rowsome, director of conservation funding for the Wilderness Society.

Whit Fosburgh, president of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said hunters and fishermen will be making a strong case to Congress this budget cycle for sustained conservation funding.

"Conservation of our natural resources is a smart move economically, and one that most sportsmen willingly support," Fosburgh said in a statement. "As Congress undertakes its review of the president's budget, we stand together in urging strong, sustained funding for the programs that have the greatest potential to impact our fish and wildlife populations, our most important American landscapes and the jobs that depend on their concerted and responsible management."

But the budget drew jeers from House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.).

"Instead of reducing spending, this budget will spend millions of taxpayer dollars to buy more federal land even though we can't afford to properly maintain the land we already own," Hastings said in a statement. "The president's budget ignores our growing national debt when we should be looking for ways to conserve scarce taxpayer dollars and decrease spending."

The 2013 budget would again increase funding for offshore oil and gas oversight in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

The budget seeks $386 million for the newly created Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement -- a $28 million increase over the current enacted levels. The additional funding would help complete the reorganization of the former Minerals Management Service and would allow the department to hire new oil and gas inspectors, engineers, scientists and other staff in addition to allowing real-time monitoring of some drilling activities, among other activities.

While Congress in December authorized Interior to collect $62 million in inspection fees from offshore drillers, it rebuffed proposals to institute a similar fee for onshore production, as well as a new fee on nonproducing leases designed to encourage faster production.

The new budget proposes new onshore oil and gas inspection fees expected to generate $48 million in 2013 that would be used to offset the costs of administering the Bureau of Land Management program.

"Increasing our taxes would push oil and natural gas investment overseas and diminish job-creation and economic activity here at home," said Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, in a statement. "After a handful of years, we would see less domestic energy production -- particularly of natural gas -- more imports, fewer new jobs, and, eventually, depressed tax, royalty and other revenues."

Similar to last year's request, the Interior budget highlights more than $200 million in savings from 2010 levels through administrative efficiencies and reduced spending in travel, printing, supplies and advisory services.

Congress late last year provided $11.4 billion for Interior for fiscal 2012, a $342 million or 3 percent cut from 2011 levels and a nearly 7 percent cut below the president's 2012 request.

The agency's 2012 request also proposed a $45 million cut in hazardous fuels reduction in order to focus wildfire prevention efforts on areas that threaten communities, Interior said. The move drew criticism from the Republican-led House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee.

Other Interior agencies' budgets would remain flat or see slight increases:

• Obama proposed boosting funding for the Fish and Wildlife Service from its current level of $1.476 billion to $1.548 billion next fiscal year.

• National Park Service funding would remain virtually flat at $2.609 billion.

• The Bureau of Land Management would see a 4 percent bump in funding, from its current level of $1.098 billion to $1.146 billion.