Environmental justice advocates in the Philadelphia region say the Biden administration brought greater access to federal grant funding than previous administrations. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed by Biden in 2022, created several grant and technical assistance programs to advance environmental justice activities in overburdened communities.
“They’re putting out so much in these last couple of years, we can’t even keep up with it,” said Maurice Sampson, eastern Pennsylvania director at the nonprofit Clean Water Action.
It’s not just the volume of federal funding, but who it’s going to. EPA grants have been more available to small, community-based organizations under Biden than previous administrations, advocates say.
“It’s a more community-driven approach,” said Jerome Shabazz, director of the Overbrook Environmental Education Center in West Philadelphia, which is part of a group of organizations that received federal money last year to act as a technical assistance hub for smaller organizations in the region. “I’ve never seen this before.”
Community Housing & Empowerment Connection Inc., the small nonprofit Dryden runs several miles from the Delaware City Refinery, received its first EPA grant under the Inflation Reduction Act to run a community-based air monitoring network, which will place monitors at dozens of homes near pollution sources. The residents will own the data and be trained to become a new crop of environmental justice advocates and leaders, Dryden said.
“[The federal government] gets it that … our communities have knowledge,” she said. “They have put their money where their mouth is.”
Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, while Trump has said he’d rescind any unspent money from the law (changing or repealing the law would take action from Congress).
“If [grant money] has already been given out and spent, I don’t think anybody has to worry about declaring bankruptcy and paying a bill back to the federal government for it,” Coglianese said. “But don’t count on getting any more of it.”
The Biden administration also set a goal to ensure 40% of the benefits of certain federal climate, environment, energy, transit and housing investments flow to communities that are “disadvantaged,” or underinvested in and overburdened by pollution. Notably, the administration’s definition of “disadvantaged” does not include race — despite evidence that people of color are exposed to more air pollution than white people, regardless of income.
Most parts of the cities of Philadelphia, Chester and Wilmington qualify as “disadvantaged,” as do more suburban and rural parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. The Biden administration’s “Justice40 Initiative” could be reversed by future administrations, since it was established by executive order.