According to a report in the Washington Timea, the Biden administration on Tuesday announced $128 million in funding for environmental justice projects across the country meant to combat the impacts of climate change in underserved communities.
The money will fund 186 projects with grants to organizations that applied and will come from a $3 billion tranche under Democrats’ tax-and-climate spending law known as the Inflation Reduction Act earmarked for environmental justice.
“We know that too many communities — particularly low-income communities and communities of color — have suffered unjustly from high levels of environmental pollution, while lacking the resources needed to access federal funding,” a senior administration official told reporters on a press call. “That’s why from Day One … President Biden has made achieving environmental justice a top priority as a part of the president’s investing in America agenda.”
Senior administration officials required that they remain anonymous in order for reporters to participate in the call.
Mr. Biden has made tackling environmental justice a pillar of his climate agenda, an issue that draws praise from his base and progressives in Congress but scrutiny from conservatives as unnecessary and misguided spending.