Environmental Justice Grants Disappear. Environmental Injustice Does Not

An illegal dumping site in Trenton, New Jersey, the focus of an environmental justice cleanup in 2020. Photo: GovPhilMurphy/Edwin J. Torres via Flickr Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 2.0).

TipSheet: Environmental Justice Grants Disappear. Environmental Injustice Does Not

By Joseph A. Davis

Donald Trump and the GOP Congress are in the process of shutting down hundreds of environmental justice grants to local and regional organizations.

For environmental reporters, that means there is likely a very human story in the neighborhood.

 

Why it matters

Not every American enjoys economic well-being.

There are poor people in places like the South who lack clean drinking water or sewage treatment. And the health disparities between middle- and upper-class white Americans and Black, Latino and other disadvantaged populations are well known.

On Native American lands and reservations, those disparities are often worse. Migrant farm workers often live in shoddy temporary housing without government protection or support.

All of this boils down to preventable human misery.

 

The backstory

It’s too long a story to more than hint at here. But it goes back at least to a 1994 executive order by former President Bill Clinton, which directed all federal agencies to make environmental justice part of their mission.

So the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (and other agencies) had been issuing environmental justice grants under many authorities for many years.

More recently, during the Biden administration, Congress enacted into law billions of dollars worth of environmental justice grants to local and regional organizations.

The biggest was probably the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which included billions in grant money over 10 years. More environmental justice grants were funded under the so-called Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

But it goes way beyond funding. When a federal agency like the EPA, for instance, permits a landfill in an area where underprivileged communities already suffer from too much pollution or lack clean drinking water, that is environmental injustice.

 

The new Trump administration

has declared war on anything

and everything labeled with

the words “environmental justice.”

 

Now, though, the new Trump administration has declared war on anything and everything labeled with the words “environmental justice” or “diversity, equity and inclusion.” It fully intends to cancel all such grants.

Because an explicit mandate for environmental justice is rarely found in laws, it depends on executive actions and policies. This is what makes it vulnerable to Trump.

A president can cancel executive orders with an executive order. And Trump did just that, with EO 14151 and others.

 

Finding grantees

Keep in mind that — because there are so many — the EPA often distributes environmental justice money to regional environmental justice groups that then pass it on to more local groups.

Finding them may not be hard. Some are listed by the EPA (also here). You can also find many of the grants mapped out by the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative. And look for more through the groups listed under reporting resources below.

 

Story ideas

• Ask this: What are the key environmental justice issues in your region or locality? They may be very different for Indigenous Alaskan communities than for Southern sharecroppers.
• Ask: What is the money for? It may be for things you might not immediately identify as environmental justice — such as low-income energy assistance or extending small drinking water systems.
• Ask: Who and where are the underserved communities in your region? Is it the unincorporated “colonias” near the U.S.-Mexico border? Is it the migrant camps in nearby agricultural areas? Is it the minority urban communities cut off from the rest of the city by freeways?
• Find local environmental justice grantees, go to where they are and talk to them. How are they affected by getting a grant — or losing one?
• What (if any) funding sources are available to local communities besides federal grants?
• What environmental justice grant or assistance programs are available from state, tribal or local governments or agencies?

 

Reporting resources

• Southern Environmental Law Center: Based in the South, this group gives legal help to environmental justice groups in that area.
• Natural Resources Defense Council: This group often litigates and offers legal support to local environmental justice causes.
• Earthjustice: A major public interest law firm that often represents environmental justice groups.
• Indigenous Environmental Network: This transnational environmental justice group often works with communities beyond U.S. borders.
• Climate Justice Alliance: This group centers on climate issues, but defines them rather broadly. It focuses on organizing and coalition-building.
• Deep South Center for Environmental Justice: Formed in 1992, this group works through research, training and organizing community engagement.

[Editor’s Note: For more, visit our environmental justice topic page, with more than three dozen SEJournal stories; plus, see our regular Voices of Environmental Justice column.]

Joseph A. Davis is a freelance writer/editor in Washington, D.C. who has been writing about the environment since 1976. He writes SEJournal Online's TipSheet, Reporter's Toolbox and Issue Backgrounder, and curates SEJ's weekday news headlines service EJToday and @EJTodayNews. Davis also directs SEJ's Freedom of Information Project and writes the WatchDog opinion column.

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 10, No. 19. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.