FEDERAL BUDGET MOVES FORWARD: CALIFORNIA'S ENVIRONMENT STANDS TO BENEFIT UNDER NEW LEADERSHIP, ESPECIALLY IN HOUSE VERSION

The U.S. House and Senate each passed budget resolutions last week that support the priorities of President's Obama's budget. While both House and Senate budgets will improve our environment, the House budget offers more opportunity to make significant investments in clean water and renewable energy.

The budget resolution is the annual blueprint for spending decisions by Congress.

Both House and Senate budget resolutions include financing mechanisms that would make it possible to solve the climate crisis, but neither one includes special fast-track procedures that would have made it easier to pass the legislation. The Senate version currently includes provisions that would frustrate efforts to take strong action to solve the climate crisis, including a handful of provisions that would make it much harder to pass a good climate and energy bill.

The House version also allows for modest but important increases in domestic spending, which would permit expanded investments in environmental priorities like cleaning up our water and pursuing renewable energy, as requested by the President. The Senate version would allow domestic spending to rise only 1 percent over inflation. With a number of one-time spending costs on the horizon such as the 2010 decennial census, the Senate funding would allow little or no new investments in our environment.

Legislators from the House and Senate will begin to negotiate the final budget when they return to Washington on April 20th. We hope the California delegation will fight to make the environment a priority as Congress develops its budget. In particular, our federal delegation can let the negotiators know that it's important for the final budget to include adequate funding for new investments in renewable energy and clean water. They can also tell negotiators that the final budget should not include any provisions that would make it harder to pass legislation to tackle global warming.

BOND FREEZE BUDDIES: PCL OFFERING NEW TOOLS TO HELP NON-PROFITS WEATHER THE CRISIS

The state bond freeze has wreaked havoc on environmental projects from the Sierra to the coast, forcing many organizations to make tough decisions in order to survive.  What's worse, this situation is likely to stay with us for the remainder of 2009 and into 2010.

PCL has responded by creating a new Bond Freeze Initiative to provide environmental communities and organizations across the state with necessary updates, information, and tools, including a series of bond freeze-related web resources and a weekly bond freeze newsletter. 

In addition, PCL is working closely with our allies to develop and implement strategies that organizations can use to move forward with their environmental projects within this changed economic climate.

We encourage anyone interested in the bond freeze crisis to visit the Bond Freeze Website or inquire about receiving the weekly Bond Freeze Update. Also visit ReSeed California, a chronicle of the impacts of the bond freeze.