The Environmental Protection Agency canceled a $3 million “climate justice” grant for Florida with a description that included “training grassroots leaders.”
The EPA terminated the grant to the Palm Beach County Office of Resilience, a local office that focuses on emergency response and “addressing the physical, social, and economic challenges of a changing climate,” according to the office’s website.
“Grassroots” is a term commonly used for mobilizing social or political movements.
The grant description states that, among other things, the $3 million was to be spent on “training grassroots leaders on how to integrate climate resilience into their business operations.”
The White House’s Department of Government Efficiency website says the grant was canceled on May 13. It was not set to begin being paid out until June 1, according to the grant description.
This is one of many similar grants created under former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which passed along party lines in 2022. The act established EPA’s Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants program. The legislation put aside $2 billion for environmental and climate justice activities.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has been aggressive in scaling back what he has called wasteful contracts in the agency. The Trump administration’s EPA targeted several similar grants across the country.
“The Trump EPA is fully committed to being a great steward of taxpayer dollars,” an EPA spokesperson told The Daily Signal in a statement Monday. “We will not follow in the footsteps of [the] Biden-Harris administration, who pursued their radical agenda of wasteful DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] programs and ‘environmental justice’ preferencing in lieu of the EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment.”
The description for the canceled Palm Beach County grant says that money would be awarded for activities, including “facilitating collaboration with community-based organizations.”
“The project will empower disadvantaged communities members to participate in climate resiliency planning by training 180 community supporter staff on PBC [Palm Beach County] climate government planning process and investment opportunities,” the grant description says.
The grant was to promote the county working alongside local citizens groups, said Megan Houston, director of the Palm Beach County Office of Resilience, when asked if the phrasing suggests political or environmental activism.
“Using grassroots and community-based organizations meant that we intended to work with local nonprofits and community leaders to get their input on local government planning processes,” Houston told The Daily Signal in an email statement. “We also intended to help grassroots leaders learn how to integrate climate resilience into their business operations. For example, a housing group could include flood protection into its program scope.”
Houston said there isn’t another source of funding for this project for the county.
“There is not replacement funding for this particular project. However, PBC includes community stakeholder workshops in its projects to the [extent] funding is available, such as through the State Resilient Florida planning grant program,” she continued.
