March 4, 2009—President Barack Obama released a rough outline of his proposed budget for fiscal year (FY) 2010 last week, and the document proposes to support clean energy development with a 10-year investment of $15 billion per year, generated from the sale of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions credits.
The funding hinges on the passage of an economy-wide GHG emissions program, under which the Obama administration intends to reduce US GHG emissions to 14 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and to 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050.
Under the proposed cap-and-trade program, all GHG emissions credits would be auctioned off, generating an estimated $78.7 billion in additional revenue in FY 2012, steadily increasing to $83 billion by FY 2019 (and presumably increasing more beyond that, although the budget proposal doesn’t look any further). The president’s proposed budget directs $15 billion per year of those funds toward clean energy technologies, while directing the remaining funds toward a tax cut.
According to President Obama, the clean energy funds will be used “to develop technologies like wind power and solar power, and to build more efficient cars and trucks right here in America.” For more information, see his announcement.
