Excerpt from: EHS Industry Solutions
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| February 06, 2008 | | The EPA's budget for fiscal year 2009 includes increased spending on permitting and the largest ever budget on criminal enforcement! | From the official press release: In Energy, the budget proposes an additional $14 million to meet the increased permitting and environmental review responsibilities that have come with the upsurge in proposed energy projects in response to higher energy prices. The additional funding will provide more workers with the required technical expertise, and grants will provide money for our state partners to increase their capacity to review and assess proposed projects. The proposed 2009 spending plan proposes the largest enforcement budget ever: an increase of $9 million for a total budget of $563 million. This includes the largest criminal enforcement budget ever: an increase of $2.4 million for a total of $52 million.
For water programs, the FY 2009 budget meets the president's commitment for funding State Revolving Fund grants with a request of $555.5 million for clean water grants and $842.2 million for drinking water grants. Several sustainable infrastructure initiatives are included: targeting Energy Star saving technologies to help reduce the $4 billion annually that water utilities spend on energy costs, supporting a multi-year research program to foster innovation in distribution and collection systems and propose private activity bonds to provide another mechanism for water project financing. | | |
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