On Friday morning, roundtable panelists in Albany called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reinstate a $20 million Community Change grant that was terminated in May.
In May, due to a shift in priorities under the Trump administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency terminated a $20 million grant intended to support environmental justice and revitalization efforts in the city of Albany.
Congressman Paul Tonko, of New York’s 20th district, on Friday hosted eight grantees of the ALL(bany) Together Project, whose efforts to advance public health and climate solutions for the City of Albany had been funded through the $20M grant.
“20 million is a lot of money to invest in the area. To the credit of President Biden and his cabinet and really the Democratic leadership in the House, we made certain that environmental justice you're fired, a certain drawdown of funds, 40% going to those communities that were designated as environmental injustice errors, and oftentimes you would post on utility plants you would be part of, you know, a community effort that served the larger good, and it came at your expense as a neighborhood. So I really liked this project. I loved the way that you all responded. I can't imagine what disappointment you feel when they start denying and for potentially denying these, these grants,” said Tonko.
Panelists reflected on the grant’s cancellation and their fight to reverse it. Daquetta Jones-Johnson is CEO of Trinity Alliance of the Capital Region.
“So on June 25 Earth justice, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Public Rights Project, and Lawyers for Good Government, filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Coalition of grant recipients to challenge EPA terminations of the environmental and climate justice program grants. So we fall, there's a total of five different grants, we fall under the community change grants program. So I just wanted to make sure it's clear that we have not given up. We are not tucking our tails. We have stayed in the fight, including on May 19, we submitted a wrongful termination letter to EPA. On May 20, we submitted also another letter saying to them that we disagree with their unilateral termination,” Jones-Johnson said.
The EPA did not respond. Tonko and the project partners vow to get grant money reactivated or secure replacement funding. “We've got to rely on communication, legislation, litigation, to be the counter force to these draconian cuts coming from the Trump administration. And let me close with my comments, saying that there's folks like you around the table that are the champs of reform and change and quality of life. You have ideas in Washington, you put the bills together, you get the resources, you get it across the finish lines to legislation, but it takes the team at home to implement so that that vision is brought to reality,” said Tonko.
Earlier this month, 20 Democratic attorneys general, including New York's Tish James, filed a legal brief supporting a lawsuit suing EPA for its decision to freeze climate justice grants.
