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The EPA is canceling almost 800 environmental justice grants, court filing reveals

By Maxine Joselow and Amudalat Ajasa Washington Post

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to cancel a total of 781 grants issued under President Joe Biden, EPA lawyers wrote in a little-noticed court filing last week, almost twice the number previously reported.

The filing in Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council v. Department of Agriculture marks the first time the agency has publicly acknowledged the total number of grants set for termination, which includes all of its environmental justice grants.

“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.”

Before the filing, the EPA had not confirmed that 781 grants would be canceled, although a list obtained by the Washington Post had shown more than 450 terminated or frozen grants totaling more than $1.5 billion.

The canceled grants would have funded a range of projects aimed at helping communities cope with the worsening effects of climate change. Recipients planned to use the money to seal homes in Washington state against wildfire smoke and protect Alaska Native villages from coastal flooding, among other things.

Most of the grants were issued by the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, which the Trump administration plans to shutter as part of its efforts to remake the agency. Trump officials last week informed more than 450 employees working on environmental justice and diversity, equity and inclusion that they will be fired or reassigned.

A coalition of environmental nonprofits, including the Providence, Rhode Island-based Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, is challenging the Trump administration’s move to freeze billions of dollars in funding under Biden’s signature 2022 climate law and the bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021.