WASHINGTON – The Biden-Harris Administration today submitted to Congress the President’s Budget for fiscal year 2023. The President’s Budget details his vision to expand on the historic progress our country has made over the last year and deliver the agenda he laid out in his State of the Union address—to build a better America, reduce the deficit, reduce costs for families, and grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out.
The President’s Budget for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) includes $261.2 million, an increase of $62.5 million from the FY 2022 Continuing Resolution level, to support BSEE’s mission of promoting safe and environmentally responsible development and production of the nation’s offshore energy resources.
Among the priorities outlined in BSEE’s FY 2023 budget request are decommissioning orphaned offshore oil and gas wells and infrastructure, increasing renewable energy production by developing and expanding safety and environmental compliance programs, and enhancing research activities.
“The President’s Budget Request demonstrates the Administration’s commitment to BSEE’s mission,” said BSEE Director Kevin M. Sligh Sr. “This budget will allow BSEE to focus attention on Administration priorities that foster safe and environmentally responsible exploration, development, and production of offshore energy resources; move forward to decommission orphaned wells and infrastructure and prepare for the upcoming installation of the first commercial offshore wind developments on the Outer Continental Shelf.”
The Budget makes critical investments in the American people that will help lay a stronger foundation for shared growth and prosperity for generations to come. BSEE’s
FY 2023 budget request fully supports President Biden’s priorities to tackle the climate crisis and increase renewable energy production safely and responsibly, as well as:
- Creating Reclamation Jobs and Restoring Ecosystems: To reduce the risk of pollution from orphaned energy infrastructure, BSEE’s budget request includes $30.0 million to address the immediate and urgent need to properly plug and abandon orphaned wells on the Outer Continental Shelf and remove orphaned pipelines and other infrastructure from the seabed.
- Deploying Clean Energy and Advancing Science: BSEE’s FY 2023 budget request fully supports the Administration’s priority to tackle the climate crisis. The request includes $13.7 million to support the development of a safe, robust, and environmentally responsible offshore wind industry in the United States. The funding will enable timely and rigorous industry plan reviews, a robust compliance assurance program, and science-based renewable energy research, and will demonstrate BSEE’s commitment and leadership in driving safety performance in the offshore wind industry while supporting the Administration’s goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030.
- Enhancing Oil Spill Research: Recognizing the importance of research in the prevention and response to oil pollution, the budget request includes $15.1 million for oil spill research. This request will enable BSEE to sponsor the testing of advance technologies for detecting oil spills and determining oil slick thickness using remote sensing tools, integrating remote sensing data to support operational decision making, and developing “smart” skimming technologies to improve recovery rates.
- Broadening the Environmental Compliance Program (ECP): Building on BSEE’s work to integrate renewable energy program needs into the ECP, the budget request will support monitoring, verifying, improving, and enforcing the offshore wind industry’s compliance with environmental standards.
- Promoting Equity and Diversity: The BSEE budget request includes $200,000 to support the Department’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility initiative. As part of this initiative, the Department, bureaus, and offices will jointly conduct a review of programs across Interior to identify gaps, challenges, and best practices and to examine Department and bureau roles, responsibilities, and governance.
Enacting the President’s Budget policies into law this year would strengthen the nation’s economy and lay the foundation for shared prosperity, while also improving long-term fiscal health. The Budget makes these smart investments while also reducing deficits and improving our country’s long-term fiscal outlook.
For more information on the President’s FY 2023 Budget, please visit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/
- BSEE -
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is the lead federal agency charged with improving safety and ensuring environmental protection related to the offshore energy industry, primarily oil and natural gas, on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.