US EPA cancelling all environmental justice grants, Washington Post reports

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

(Reuters) -The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of canceling almost 800 grants, including all aimed at promoting environmental justice, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing comments by an agency official in a court filing.

The number of grants slated for cancellation is twice the amount previously reported, the Post reported. The filing marks the first public acknowledgement by the agency of the total number of grants slated for termination, the newspaper reported.

The newspaper cited a document filed last week in a federal court case in Rhode Island. The case was brought by a coalition of nonprofits who challenged the Trump administration’s freezing of billions of dollars in grants that were authorized by Congress under climate investment and infrastructure laws passed under previous president Joe Biden.

“EPA is in the process of sending out the formal termination/cancellation notices to all of the impacted grantees,” EPA career official Daniel Coogan wrote in the filing.

“EPA has already sent out formal notices to approximately 377 grantees. For the remaining approximately 404 grantees, EPA plans to issue notices within the next two weeks.”

The canceled grants would have funded numerous projects aimed at helping communities cope with the worsening impacts of climate change, including money to seal homes in Washington state against wildfire smoke and to protect Alaska native villages from coastal flooding, according to the Post.

The EPA did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Since taking office on January 20, the Trump administration has moved to cancel billions of dollars of DEI, climate and infrastructure grants, cut EPA environmental justice programs and lay off environmental justice staff. DEI stands for diversity, equity and inclusion.

Researchers and former EPA officials say the end of the EPA’s DEI and environmental justice programs – which seek to ensure a healthy environment for minority groups that often live closest to sources of contamination – will be most felt in Black and Hispanic communities that have long endured the harmful effects of pollution.

(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Daniel Wallis)