AFS Government Affairs Representative—Waterman & Assoc., Washington, D.C. EPA’s Budget Highlights
Greenhouse Gas Reporting The overall proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 is reduced, with extra money earmarked for greenhouse gas emissions programs.
million to continue work on a rule that would require as many as 15,000 facilities to report their greenhouse gas emissions. This is an increase of $4 million over the amount enacted for fiscal year 2010. The overall budget for next year is a decrease of 3% from the historically high level set in the current fiscal year. In addition to its regular appropriations, EPA received $7.2 billion—the equivalent of almost an additional year of funding—in the 2009 economic stimulus law. With some of that money still un-
P
spent, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson contends that most programs have plenty of available resources. The EPA budget does not assume addi- tional revenue from cap-and-trade legislation that would aim to reduce greenhouse gases. In addition to the increase in fund-
ing for more greenhouse gas emis- sions reporting, the budget allots $56 million, including $43 million in new
resident Obama’s requested $10 billion fiscal year 2011 budget for the U.S. Environ- mental Protection Agency (EPA) would set aside $21
funding, for EPA and states to curb greenhouse gas emissions through regulatory programs. Of that funding, $25 million would
aid states as they begin to account for greenhouse gases in New Source Review and operating permits, $7 million would go toward developing New Source Performance Standards to curb greenhouse gases from major stationary sources, $6 million would be used to implement EPA’s pending greenhouse gas standards for auto- mobiles and developing other mobile source regulations, and $5 million would be used to develop the best available practices and technologies for controlling emissions. The administration also is seeking
$7.1 million for carbon capture and sequestration programs, nearly 78% more than the enacted fiscal year 2010 amount. Congress likely will be mak- ing changes to the EPA budget in the months ahead.
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For more information on the EPA bud- get, visit
www.epa.gov/budget or contact Alicia Oman, Metalcasters Alliance Government Affairs Washington office at
ao@wafed.com or 202/842-4864.
On the Hill WASHINGTON ALERT
Congress Keys in on Jobs In Congress, a series of jobs bills
were expected to make it to the floor early this month. Some of the provi- sions that are of interest to the metal- casting industry include: • payroll tax break for employers hir- ing new workers;
• renewal of several expiring tax credits; • extension of section 179 expensing thresholds so taxpayers can write off up to $250,000 of certain capital expenditures in lieu of depreciating those costs over time;
• extension of several energy tax provisions;
• one-year extension of the law gov- erning the Highway Trust Fund;
• extension of unemployment insur- ance and COBRA health benefits;
• $6 billion worth of “timely, targeted relief” for private pension funds that suffered heavy losses in recent years. The centerpiece of the jobs leg-
islation has been a provision giving companies an exemption from paying Social Security taxes for the remainder of 2010 on every worker they hire who has been unemployed for at least 60 days. The proposal is popular among many lawmakers but also has sparked controversy, as some have questioned whether it will create commensurate jobs for its estimated cost of $13 billion over 10 years.
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OSHA Seeks Budget Increase The U.S. Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) request- ed $573 million for fiscal year 2011, a $14.5 million increase over the agency’s 2010 budget. The increase would al- low OSHA to add 60 investigators and enforcement staff members in 2011, for a total enforcement staff of 1,752. The agency set a goal of reducing
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said that most programs have enough resources. MODERN CASTING / March 2010
by 2% the 571 annual construction fatalities caused by falls, electrocutions and workers being struck by or caught between objects. The OSHA budget also would continue 2010’s emphasis on drafting new rules. Between 2000 and 2008, the agency cut its budgets for developing new rules but in 2010 added 20 staff members. The 2011 list of regulatory priorities includes new standards for cranes and derricks and for dealing with crystalline silica and combustible dust.
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