The Biden administration is withholding federal funding from a climate justice group that supports a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Climate Justice Alliance, a national coalition of more than 100 community environmental groups, was one of 11 grant-making organizations designated for Environmental Protection Agency funding under President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
The Climate Justice Alliance is the only group of the 11 grantees that has engaged publicly on issues related to Palestine — and the only one that hasn’t received its funding.
“If we are not funded, it could set a larger civil society precedent for any future federal funding.”
Climate Justice Alliance Executive Director KD Chavez said the organization, which was recently attacked by right-wing politicians and media, has been targeted because of its anti-war stance.
Palestine is hardly a focus of the Climate Justice Alliance’s work, but past statements calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and denouncing apartheid in Palestine have come under a microscope amid a political climate that is increasingly hostile to any form of support for Palestinians.
“Since our founding, CJA has been really clear in our position opposing war, racism, and colonialism,” said Chavez. “For us, there is a direct tie to carbon emissions and militarism, and we stand behind our environmental and climate justice work, which is going to mean that we are anti-war at heart.”
Delaying the grant payment, which was first reported by E&E News, could set a broader precedent to withhold funding from organizations working on social justice issues, Chavez said. House Republicans recently passed a bill known as H.R. 9495 that critics say would green-light devastating political attacks on nonprofits.
“If we are not funded, it could set a larger civil society precedent for any future federal funding for any ambiguously progressive organization in the future,” Chavez said. “When we’re connecting the dots, seeing H.R. 9495 gain traction plus the potential of us not being obligated these funds could lead to dangerous precedent setting for civil society more broadly.”
A spokesperson for the EPA said the agency was still evaluating the Climate Justice Alliance grant. “EPA continues to work through its rigorous process to obligate the funds under the Inflation Reduction Act, including the Thriving Communities Grantmakers program,” EPA Communications Director Nick Conger said in a statement to The Intercept. “EPA continues to review the grant for the Climate Justice Alliance.”
Looming GOP Attack
The Biden administration announced the recipients of $600 million in grants under the program in December. The Climate Justice Alliance was one of three national grantees. Nine regional organizations were also selected.
The Climate Justice Alliance said it met all administrative deadlines and expected to get notice of funds by September, the end of the standard 90-day waiting period for grant applicants. Grantees under the program have to have their funds obligated by December 6 in order to get the funds disbursed before the start of the Trump administration.
The grant would support communities experiencing disproportionately heavy impacts of climate change by funding air- and water-quality sampling, cleanup projects, air quality monitoring, and building green infrastructure.
If the EPA decided not to issue the grant, the effects would fall disproportionately on working people, Chavez said.
“This would be a political divestment from working class and marginalized communities,” Chavez said. “In its place, we would see the polluting of our public lands and neighborhoods by the fossil fuel industry.”
In a statement last year following the October 7 attacks, the Climate Justice Alliance called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and condemned “genocidal attacks by Israel on the civilian Palestinian population.” The alliance has also called on Congress to stop funding Israel’s military and denounced apartheid in Palestine as a climate justice issue resulting from the effects of war contaminating Palestine’s air, water, and soil.
“This is about the GOP’s obsession with shutting down the EPA.”
“This is about the GOP’s obsession with shutting down the EPA,” Chavez said. “The attacks that we’re seeing on us are collateral damage in a war against regulations that protect everybody.”
Republican lawmakers and right-wing media have targeted the Climate Justice Alliance in recent attacks. On Saturday, the Daily Caller published a story on the pending EPA grant that claimed that the Climate Justice Alliance shared protest material celebrating Hamas.
The Daily Caller also said the Biden administration was weighing “awarding taxpayer dollars to [a] nonprofit that wants to defund the police.” Earlier this month, Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee issued a report criticizing the EPA program and claiming that the Climate Justice Alliance had exhibited “anti-Republican sentiment.”
President-elect Donald Trump and his administration are preparing to gut groups working on environmental and economic issues affecting working-class people, Chavez said.
“We’re going to be facing a lot of rollbacks in these next two to four years,” they said. “And we want to make sure that our communities are at least resourced in being able to mitigate the harm.”
