President Donald Trump recently released a proposed budget for fiscal year (FY) 2027 which the administration says will cut non-defense energy program funding by 11 percent.
In a summary provided to members, APPA noted that with much of last year’s budget and this year’s proposed budget relying on non-appropriated funds, it is hard to make an “apples to apples” comparison of fiscal year 2026 and 2027 spending.
For example, the president is proposing creating a new “Baseload Power” program withing the Department of Energy (DOE).
Activities for the program would include “purchase, construction, and acquisition of plant and capital equipment to increase capacity to transmit electricity, upgrade infrastructure and equipment, and conduct other activities that support strengthening grid reliability and reducing the cost of electricity for American families,” APPA said.
However, funding for the program would not come from 2027 appropriations, but from a reprogramming of $3.5 billion from Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding for regional clean hydrogen hubs.
A detailed explanation of the budget can be found in the “Appendix”.
LIHEAP
The president’s plan for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) calls for eliminating the program entirely.
As in past years, the president’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) claims that LIHEAP is unnecessary because states already have policies preventing utility disconnection for low-income households.
As a result, OMB says, LIHEAP is “a pass-through benefit to utility companies, particularly in the Northeast.” OMB further says that LIHEAP “rewards” states such as New York and California, which it says have implemented anti-energy and anti-consumer policies that increase home energy prices.
President Trump also proposed eliminating LIHEAP last year, but Congress increased funding for the program by $20 million to $4.045 billion for FY 2026.
APPA provided the following summary of the proposed budget for programs of interest to public power:
Nuclear Energy
The budget would allocate $1.533 billion for nuclear energy activities including the purchase, construction, and acquisition of plant and capital equipment. This would include a decrease in nuclear energy program funding from $1.097 billion in FY 2026 to $884 million in FY 2027 and steady funding for the Idaho National Laboratory at $160 million. It would cut entirely $495 million of obligated nuclear funding from Inflation Reduction Act.
The budget proposes increased staffing at the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) from 236 in FY 2026 to 300 in FY 2027. The NE Office funds a range of research and development activities, including fuel cycle research and development, nuclear energy enabling technologies, and the advanced reactor demonstration program.
The budget would also allocate $12 million for nuclear waste disposal activities, which includes the Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight program, the program responsible for addressing the security, maintenance, and environmental requirements of the Yucca Mountain site.
Power Marketing Administrations
The budget request would fund the federal power marketing administrations (PMAs) at the following levels:
Southeastern Power Administration (SEPA)
The budget requests $9,285,000 for expenses necessary for the operation and maintenance of power transmission facilities and for marketing electric power, including transmission wheeling, for SEPA. This is the same amount requested in the president’s budget for FY 2026. It also requests up to $81,819,000 to recover purchase power and wheeling expenses credited as offsetting collections, the same amount as FY 2026. It requests keeping SEPA staff steady at 44 personnel.
Southwestern Power Administration (SWPA)
The budget requests $61,798,000 for SWPA for the operation and maintenance of power transmission facilities, marketing electric power, and for the construction and acquisition of transmission lines, substations and appurtenant facilities, a roughly four percent increase from the FY 2026 request of $59,766,000. It requests up to $51,398,000 collected by SWPA from the sale of power and related services credited to the account as discretionary offsetting collections, for a final FY 27 appropriation of no more than $10,400,000. It requests reducing the direct full-time SWPA employment by two, from 162 to 160 people, while increasing reimbursable civilian full-time employment by two, from 32 to 34.
Western Area Power Administration (WAPA)
The executive budget would fund WAPA operation and maintenance at $321,775,000 derived from the Department of the Interior Reclamation Fund, an increase from $311,035,000 requested for FY 2026. Up to $258,387,000 of the FY 2027 amount would be credited as discretionary offsetting collections to fund annual WAPA expenses, for a final FY 2027 appropriation of $63,388,000. Up to $350,000,000 collected by WAPA to recover purchase power and wheeling expenses could be credited as offsetting collections.
Bonneville Power Administration (BPA)
BPA operates on a “revolving fund” basis and does not receive annual discretionary appropriations. It proposes increasing direct civilian full-time equivalent employment from 3,460 in FY 2026 to 3,560 in FY 2027.
Wildfire
The president’s budget request includes $3 billion for wildfire suppression activities consolidated under the U.S. Wildland Fire Service (USWFS) at the Department of the Interior, $100 million above the enacted FY 2026 level.
The administration argues that federal wildfire mitigation and response is “fractured and has led to significant coordination and cost inefficiencies,” which is why all wildfire accounts and activities should be under the jurisdiction of USWFS, which was launched by DOI in January 2026.
Regarding the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) under the Department of Agriculture, the budget request calls for “unifying national incident response and preparedness programs” under USWFS to “streamline Federal wildfire suppression policy, resources, response, risk mitigation efforts, and coordination with non-Federal partners to combat the wildfire crisis.” These provisions are consistent with Executive Order (EO) 14308, “Empowering Commonsense Wildfire Prevention and Response.”
The budget also states support for “refocus[ing] the Forest Service on its core land and resource management mission” with efforts to promote timber production instead of focusing on wildfire management. A similar proposal to consolidate wildfire mitigation and response under USWFS was proposed in the president’s FY 2026 budget but was rejected by Congress. The administration needs congressional approval to transfer wildfire programs from USFS to USWFS, as they are housed in different executive departments.
Environmental Protection Agency
The president’s budget request proposes providing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with $4.2 billion, a 52 percent reduction from FY 2026 enacted levels.
The budget request proposes eliminating all environmental justice programs, the Atmospheric Protection Program, State Revolving Funds, Categorical Grant programs, the Superfund program, Diesel Emissions Reduction Act grants, and would cut research and development programs that are not aligned with the administration’s environmental priorities.
According to the administration, the budget request “ensures that [EPA] can carry out its core mission and statutory responsibilities while eliminating wasteful, radical Green New Scam funding and regulatory overreach” and transfers responsibility for many environmental programs back to states. The president’s FY 2026 budget request included similar language and proposed cuts that were largely rejected by Congress, resulting in the enacted FY 2026 EPA budget of $8.8 billion.
Permitting Reform
The budget includes permitting-related proposals in several locations, focused on streamlining programs and reducing bureaucratic delays.
In the DOI section, the budget proposes combining Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act permitting under DOI and eliminating the required cross-department coordination with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at the Department of Commerce.
In the EPA section, the budget includes $14 million for NEPAssist and other web-based environmental permitting resources to assist with permitting under the National Environmental Permitting Act consistent with EO 14514, “Unleashing American Energy,” and the Presidential Memorandum, “Updating Permitting Technology for the 21st Century.”
