Climate Change: Federal Program Funding and Tax Incentives (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Revised Dec. 22, 2008 |
| Report Number |
RL33817 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Jane A. Leggett, Resources, Science, and Industry Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
Federal funding to address global climate change was enacted at $6.37 billion for FY2008, extended by a Continuing Resolution for FY2009 at or below FY2008 levels to March 6, 2009. Members of Congress have expressed interest in how federal funding may reflect and enable an overall strategy, and priorities within it, to address climate change. This report summarizes federal funding and tax incentives identified as climate change-related under the Bush Administration. It identifies the organization of programs, how funding may reflect priorities, and external evaluations or recommendations for the broad programs, to the degree they are available.
Barack Obama has made direction-changing pledges to abate U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and to engage more aggressively internationally on climate change. The change in Executive leadership and the evolving Congressional debate over appropriate policies to address climate change may shift priorities among climate change activities. Calls to expand climate change funding, despite deepening budget pressures, may require that programs do a better job of demonstrating benefits to compete effectively with other budgetary demands. This review of federal funding of climate change activities suggests that there may be opportunities to better align funding with strategic policy goals, and to assure that programs are organized to accomplish those goals more efficiently.
Fourteen federal agencies administer climate change-related activities. The packaging of mostly existing programs into a climate change strategy has resulted in a lack of a unifying mission jointly shared across agencies to address climate change. Funding has largely reflected departmental missions and support for each activity, rather than each activity's expected contribution to an over-arching strategy. The new Obama Administration is expected to provide more action-oriented leadership, but will face the challenge of aligning programs, resources, and tax incentives into a cross-agency, inter-governmental strategy. Associated legislative issues include how legislation to control greenhouse gases may affect funding and tax incentive priorities; the sufficiency and alignment of federal resources to support a strategy to achieve long-term climate change policy goals; demands for additional and predictable resources to support actions by low income countries to mitigate greenhouse gases or adapt to climate change; possible legislative proposals to restructure or improve collaboration among climate change activities; addressing recommendations from evaluations, to the degree they exist, to improve climate change programs; exploring options for financing climate change programs, especially if greenhouse gas emission allowances or fees are enacted by the 111th Congress; and possible requirements for reporting to Congress of funding, budget justifications and programmatic progress that are adequate to support Congressional decision-making and oversight.
