Obama budget boosts climate agenda

President Obama dropped a 2016 budget proposal that gives a big boost to his climate change agenda despite the fact that he is now facing a hostile Republican-controlled Congress. But his Cabinet had his
back on Monday, swearing to "defend" the proposal before Congress. Let's crunch the numbers:

- $8.6 billion for the EPA, which is $450 million above last year's approved budget.
- $4 billion for a new initiative called the Clean Power State Incentive Fund, which will reward states that go beyond the carbon pollution reduction targets set by the administration's regulation on existing power plants.
- $7.4 billion for clean energy technology programs to promote the growth of solar, wind and low-carbon fossil fusel across the U.S.
- $239 million for the Environmental Protection Agency to assist with its efforts to tackle climate change, $25 million of which will help states craft a strategy to meet targets set by the climate rule.
- $29.9 billion for the Energy Department, $2 billion more than Obama requested last year.
- $13.2 billion for the Interior Department, an increase of 8 percent, or $959.2 million, over what Congress gave it for 2015.
- $500 million for foreign climate aid -- the United Nations Green Climate Fund -- to help countries mitigate climate change impacts. The administration wants a total of $1.29 billion to help the international climate push, and eventually $3 billion specifically for the climate fund...more