The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now taking applications for grants funded by President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 American Rescue Plan (ARP) relief package, which was signed into law in 2021. However, some officials disapprove of the grants awarded in 2021, claiming the program gave money to projects unrelated to COVID-19 or the pandemic.
One of the nonprofits that got a grant from the EPA’s Environmental Justice Small Grants Program last year was Speak for the Trees, based in Massachusetts. The organization uses “storytelling” and “tree walks,” among other things, to “increase awareness and dialogue around inequitable tree canopy cover and its effects on the health of residents living in [environmental justice] communities.”
Teaching Responsible Earth Education, or T.R.E.E., was given a grant in 2021 to “create an empowering, school curriculum-integrated environmental education program for younger students that will help them become aware of problems like climate change and the injustices they cause,” according to MSN News.
Several grants were given to projects that build “green infrastructure,” like electric car charging stations. In Charlotte, North Carolina, Clean Air Carolina was awarded money for a project to put up a public Level 2 EV charging station and make an educational video.
“I’m not surprised in the slightest the Biden administration is using pandemic relief funds to foot the bill for ridiculous initiatives like environmental justice, telling people not to eat fish, or other Green New Deal initiatives,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) to Fox News Digital.
Norman, who sits on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, told Fox, “They don’t care about taxpayer money, and they’ve made a big deal out of addressing climate change with their woke agenda.”
EPA officials defended the grants, explaining that money from the American Rescue Plan can help communities “improve conditions related to COVID-19 such as air quality issues.”
A spokesperson told Fox News, “These projects all went through a rigorous scoring and approval process to make sure they were in line with our statutory authority as well as with the language and intent of ARP.”
This year the EPA grants are reserved specifically for federally recognized tribes.
The EPA announced in its applications request on March 21 that $1.6 million from the ARP will be awarded as grants to help “federally recognized tribal governments set up or modify public participation programs where the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted fair treatment and meaningful participation priorities.”
According to the document, the agency intends to disperse about sixteen to twenty grants of up to $100,000 to each project.
An EPA spokesperson told Fox News that the Environmental Justice Small Grants Program will be used “to efficiently distribute funds to federally recognized tribal governments” this year, but will not affect funding for previous or future opportunities in the program.
“Environmental justice grants aim to support public education, training, and emergency planning for communities across the country impacted by COVID-19, regardless of their zip code,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “These grants are part of EPA’s effort to actively fight the COVID-19 pandemic that is having a disproportionate impact on low-income and minority communities.”
The American Rescue Plan, which is the source of the funding for the grants, ends May 20. Some experts welcome its departure, criticizing it as detrimental to the economy.
Steve Rattner, a former advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury during the Obama administration, blames the $1.9 billion COVID-19 relief package for overheating the economy, as indicated by the rising inflation rate. In March, the inflation rate hit 8.5%.
Rattner warned that the $1.9 billion American Rescue Plan “will go down in history as a huge mistake.”
According to Fox News, the new grant applications do not affect any past or future funding opportunities for the program.
