climate spending

Gov. Palin released her 2010 budget plan yesterday, and while she hasn't exactly pitched a plan for tackling climate change, there is a fair amount of climate-related spending. Palin is proposing to spend about $6 million to deal with coastal erosion ($3 million for Shishmaref, $2 million for Newtok, $800,000 for Koyukuk) and another $50 million to jump start renewable energy projects (a legislative mandate). She included $184,000 for her own climate change sub-cabinet group, which is studying adaptation and mitigation measures, and another $300,000 for the state's climate change impact mitigation program, which started last year. There's also $5 million for public housing energy-efficiency upgrades, which are apparently a HUD requirement. Minus the $300 million shot in the arm for weatherization and energy efficiency programs, that's about what the state spent this year.
It's hard to really judge Palin's plan for dealing with climate change. On the one hand, the spending on coastal erosion is significant, and the money for renewables -- if lawmakers allow it to be spent -- is huge. On the other hand, Palin's spending is not a direct acknowledgement of the human role in climate change -- coastal erosion is an emergency no matter what caused it, and renewable energy is attractive economically. The governor has been less generous with things that only make sense if you acknowledge the human role. (To be clear, Palin does acknowledge a human role, but seems skeptical -- like many Alaskans -- of the IPCC assetion that humans are responsible for most of the recent warming.) Palin's sub-cabinet is taking the bargain-basement approach to crafting its climate action plan, as far as I can tell, and the governor has been reluctant to increase funding for climate-related research. This year, when the university asked for new money for energy, engineering, and climate-related programs, the governor went with energy alone. Then again, the focus is renewable energy.