By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration announced on Tuesday a significant $2 billion in grants available for disadvantaged communities disproportionately affected by pollution and climate change. The funds are aimed at supporting projects to enhance their resilience to climate impacts and improve monitoring of air and water quality.
These Community Change Grants mark the largest investment in environmental justice by an administration and are a critical step toward the administration’s goal of ensuring that 40% of federal clean energy investment benefits flow to disadvantaged communities.
Allocated under the Inflation Reduction Act, these funds are required to be utilized by November 2024, coinciding with the next U.S. presidential election.
The administration’s expenditure on climate and environmental justice initiatives has faced criticism from Republican lawmakers opposed to the president’s climate agenda.
“This historic, unprecedented funding holds the potential to transform disadvantaged and overburdened areas into healthy, resilient, and thriving communities for current and future generations,” stated EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
The EPA will be accepting applications on a rolling basis and urges early submissions from potential grantees.
The agency has identified five target investment areas where it hopes to receive applications, including Alaska tribal areas, continental U.S. tribal land, territories such as Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam, small and rural areas lacking fixed geographic boundaries, and areas along the southern border with Mexico.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici, Editing by Franklin Paul)
