The Biden-Harris administration today released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2024. The President’s budget request includes $270.6 million to support the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’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 2024 budget request are continuing to strengthen oversight, regulatory, and research capabilities; building and sustaining staffing capabilities to support BSEE’s mission; improving Tribal engagement by establishing a National Tribal Engagement Program; decommissioning orphaned wells and infrastructure; facilitating protective strategies for managing carbon sequestration offshore; and supporting the development of a safe, robust, and sustainable offshore renewable energy industry.
“The President’s Budget illustrates the Administration’s commitment to supporting BSEE’s expanding multi-mission portfolio on the Outer Continental Shelf,” said BSEE Director Kevin Sligh. “This budget will allow BSEE to build upon its mission to ensure responsible exploration, development, and production of America’s offshore energy resources.”
The budget makes critical, targeted investments in the American people that will promote greater prosperity and economic growth for decades to come. At BSEE, the budget will:
- Create Good-Paying Jobs and Restore Ecosystems: To reduce the risk of pollution from orphaned infrastructure, BSEE’s budget request includes $30 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.
- Deploy Clean Energy and Advance Science: BSEE’s FY 2024 budget request fully supports the Administration’s priority to advance renewable energy through 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.
- Enhance 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 advanced technologies for detecting oil spills and determining oil slick thickness using remote sensing tools, integrating remote sensing data to support operational decision making, and develop “smart” skimming technologies to improve recovery rates.
- Broaden the Environmental Compliance Program: Building on BSEE’s work to integrate renewable energy program needs into environmental compliance, the budget request will support monitoring, verifying, improving, and enforcing the offshore wind industry’s compliance with environmental standards.
- Promote Equity and Diversity: As part of this initiative, the Department, bureaus, and offices will jointly conduct a review of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility program across Interior to identify gaps, challenges, and best practices and to examine Department and bureau roles, responsibilities, and governance.
- Expand Tribal Engagement: The BSEE budget request includes $800,000 to establish a National Tribal Engagement Program to ensure timely coordination and consultation with Tribes and develop comprehensive policies for engagement with Tribes.
- Develop a Programmatic Framework for Carbon Sequestration – BSEE is partnering with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to develop regulations to implement new offshore carbon sequestration authority, as directed by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. BSEE’s 2024 budget request includes $1.5 million to hire personnel with the necessary technical expertise to establish a programmatic framework for offshore carbon sequestration, develop safety and environmental standards, and establish applied research needs and requirements to inform safe operations. The regulations are intended to facilitate an effective and environmentally protective strategy for managing carbon sequestration on the OCS.
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