Organizations serving Black and Brown communities are in the crosshairs, and many haven’t even been alerted that funding could be canceled.
Every single environmental justice grant made by the Environmental Protection Agency during the Biden Administration could be cancelled if the agency’s new administrator, Lee Zeldin, has his way.
According to an April court filing reported on by the Washington Post, the agency has plans to scrap what has been reported as nearly 800 grants, including every single one that’s focused on environmental justice — though there is some discrepancy over the numbers.
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Previously, about 400 grants made through the Inflation Reduction Act totaling $20 billion, had been at the center of the controversy around canceling environmental justice funding granted during the Biden Administration.
Legal Battles Escalate as Groups Fight for Funds
This most recent court filing suggests an even broader attack on Biden-era funding, but Ryan Hathaway, the director for climate and environmental justice at Lawyers for Good Government, which has been working with many organizations with EPA funding at risk, says that the number has been inflated.
Some of the grants had not only been awarded, but the money had been paid out too. However, “most money has not been paid out because the IRA grants were much bigger,” Hathaway says. “However, there are lots of grants by volume that are pretty far along in their work.”
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