Written by: Kimberly White
The Biden-Harris administration has announced a new funding initiative to support disadvantaged and underserved communities on the frontlines of environmental injustice.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled the Community Change Grants program, providing up to $2 billion in grants for marginalized communities vulnerable to the climate crisis and overburdened by pollution. Funded by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the $2 billion grant program marks the largest single investment in environmental justice history.
Through the Community Change Grants program, the EPA aims to deliver on the U.S. administration’s commitment to advancing equity and justice. The program has earmarked $200 million of funding to provide technical assistance to applicants and grant recipients to provide disadvantaged communities better accessibility to resources for environmental and climate justice activities.
“Throughout my Journey to Justice tour, I’ve heard from residents and advocates calling for resources to support local solutions in communities that have long been overlooked and forgotten,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “This historic, unprecedented funding has the promise to turn disadvantaged and overburdened areas into healthy, resilient, and thriving communities for current and future generations.”
The EPA anticipates the grants will support a broad spectrum of environmental justice activities, including climate resiliency and adaptation initiatives, community-led air pollution monitoring and prevention, investments in low- and zero-emission and resilient technologies, and green workforce development to support the transition away from fossil fuels and to a clean energy economy.
While the EPA accepts applications from all across the U.S. and its territories, the agency has identified five target investment areas where it hopes to receive applications from to help ensure that communities with unique circumstances and needs can equitably compete for funding. The target investment areas are tribes in Alaska; continental U.S. tribal land; the territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands; small and rural unincorporated communities; and communities on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Applications are open now through November 2024. The agency has stated it will review applications on a rolling basis and strongly encourages applicants to apply as soon as possible.
Header Image Credit: U.S. EPA/Flickr
