President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2024 budget proposes $1.7 billion for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that includes investments to accelerate clean energy development.
BLM’s proposed fiscal year 2024 budget is an increase of $140.5 million above fiscal year 2023 funding, a March 9 news release said. The budget includes funding for the climate crisis and accelerating “clean energy development to reach the goal of permitting 25 gigawatts of renewable energy on public lands by 2025.”
“This budget proposal will put people to work restoring our public lands, deliver the clean energy necessary to tackle a changing climate and build a more robust, diverse agency,” Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning said in the release. “It's a significant investment in the president’s agenda to address the climate crisis, restore balance on public lands and waters, promote a clean energy future and create good-paying jobs.”
The budget proposal will allow BLM to advance renewable energy development, “including $72.5 million in the Renewable Energy Management program and an increase of $11.0 million in the Resource Management Planning program,” the release said.
BLM’s fiscal year 2024 budget of $1.7 billion includes “$1.5 billion for the Management of Lands and Resources appropriation and $132.7 million for the Oregon and California Grant Lands appropriation, BLM’s principal operating accounts,” the Bureau of Land Management’s budget overview said.
The Bureau of Land Management manages 245 million acres of public land, where more than 170 million people live within 100 miles of those public lands, the release said.
The budget requests $304 million in Land Resources for “integrated management of public land resources,” $235.4 million in Wildlife Habitat Management and Aquatic Resources for conservation and restoration of lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and an increase of $12 million for the agency to work with youth corps programs, according to the release.
Included in the budget is funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act to support efforts in ecosystem restoration, orphaned and abandoned well remediation, wildland fire management, clean energy and transmission infrastructure, the release reported.
