The Biden administration on Tuesday announced $128 million in funding for environmental justice projects across the country meant to combat the impacts of climate change in underserved communities.
The money will fund 186 projects with grants to organizations that applied and will come from a $3 billion tranche under Democrats’ tax-and-climate spending law known as the Inflation Reduction Act earmarked for environmental justice.
“We know that too many communities — particularly low-income communities and communities of color — have suffered unjustly from high levels of environmental pollution, while lacking the resources needed to access federal funding,” a senior administration official told reporters on a press call. “That’s why from Day One … President Biden has made achieving environmental justice a top priority as a part of the president’s investing in America agenda.”
Senior administration officials required that they remain anonymous in order for reporters to participate in the call.
Mr. Biden has made tackling environmental justice a pillar of his climate agenda, an issue that draws praise from his base and progressives in Congress but scrutiny from conservatives as unnecessary and misguided spending.
Officials did not make the full recipient list immediately available. They said there were more than 1,000 applicants. Each project falls under one of two categories and will either receive up to $500,000 or up to $1 million.
Officials cited some examples of projects that will be funded, such as installing micro parks, providing radon test kits and placing those released from prison in solar energy jobs.
The first category of projects is for organizations to address environmental or public health issues, including wildfires and other climate events; indoor and outdoor air quality; access to healthy food; water quality and toxic pollution; and health assessments, emergency response plans and economic revitalization initiatives.
One project in Jackson, Mississippi, will provide the nonprofit climate group 2C Mississippi with money to replace abandoned properties with 15 micro parks that an official said would reduce flood risk and increase “equitable access to green infrastructure while strengthening community cohesion.”
Another project in Columbus, Ohio, will feature the hiring of former prison inmates for solar industry jobs by the group Accompanying Returning Citizens with Hope.
In Boise, Idaho, Terragraphics International Foundation, a nonprofit that addresses environmental health in low and middle-income areas, will be funded to help the Shoshone-Piaute Tribes of Duck Valley Indian Reservation with disaster preparedness from wildfires and mining emergencies.
The second category of funding is a government-to-government program. It will include improving indoor and outdoor air quality, reducing exposure to toxic pollution in homes, improving water quality, expanding access to healthy food and affordable transportation and emergency preparedness.
North Dakota’s Department of Environmental Quality, for example, will distribute 600 radon tests to 50 low-income households in three low-income areas “to fill gaps in radon awareness testing and mitigation.”
In Rochester, New York, the city will create all-electric homes with rooftop solar where feasible and electric vehicle charging for residents disproportionately impacted by climate change who are least financially able to adapt.
“We are continuing to advance environmental justice with a sense of urgency because the people of this country are relying on us,” a senior administration official said. “We won’t stop until all people of this country, regardless of the color of their skin, the community they live in, or the money in their pocket, have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and the opportunity to lead a healthy life.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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