Research & Developments is a blog for brief updates that provide context for the flurry of news regarding law and policy changes that impact science and scientists today.
The EPA plans to cancel 781 grants, almost all focused on environmental justice, according to a court document filed last week.
In Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council v. Department of Agriculture, a coalition of nonprofits is challenging the Trump administration’s freezing of funding from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. In the recent court document, Daniel Coogan, an administrator in the Office of Mission Support for the EPA, stated that the agency completed a grant-by-grant review of its awards to ensure that grants aligned with administration priorities. Those that were not aligned were targeted for termination.
All 781 grants targeted for termination fall under programs formed by the IRA, a 2022 law that helped to promote clean energy and bolster environmental projects. Most of the grants are part of EPA programs focused on environmental justice and include projects to help some of the United States’ most environmentally disadvantaged communities be resilient to the effects of climate change and protect residents from pollution.
According to the court document, 377 grantees have been notified that their funding has been terminated, and the remaining 404 grantees will receive notices within the next two weeks.
Hundreds of grantees’ projects will be affected by the terminations. In one such project, San Diego nonprofit Casa Familiar expected to receive $12.7 million to help a majority-Latino community obtain low-cost, zero-emission transportation and indoor air monitors and purifiers. The group has been unable to withdraw funds for months and now awaits notification that their grant has been terminated. In another example, the community of Chiloquin, Oregon, now expects that a planned community center and disaster shelter may never be built after the EPA suspended funding for the project.
The news of the cancellations comes shortly after hundreds of EPA employees working on diversity, equity, and inclusion and environmental justice issues were given notice that they would be fired or reassigned.
According to the Washington Post, experts are concerned that the EPA did not conduct the full grant-by-grant review process required to terminate ongoing grants. “They’re claiming to the court that each one of those was done on an individualized basis, even though they haven’t shown any evidence,” Jillian Blanchard, vice president of climate change and environmental justice at Lawyers for Good Government, told the Washington Post.
—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer
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