Biden Aims to Ease Environment Grantmaking for Community Groups

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced $600 million to fund environmental justice projects under a new structure designed to make it easier for small, community-based groups to get their hands on federal money.

The effort takes aim at a problem many climate advocates have raised since the infrastructure and climate laws were enacted: although those bills released unprecedented sums in grant funding, small groups often don’t have the staff or expertise to apply for grants, and sometimes don’t even know grant money is available.

Under the new mechanism, a network of national and regional institutions will steer grant money to sub-recipients.

“These organizations will be able to review and approve grant applications faster—not with all the bureaucracy, not in years, but in months,” Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters on Tuesday. “This means our investment will hit the streets more quickly.”

The framework also means funding decisions will be made closer to the ground, by people who “are uniquely well positioned to ensure these grants make a real impact,” Harris said.

The money could be used to help nonprofits monitor air pollution levels, or let schools in Indian country establish programs to teach students about environmental science, according to Harris. Other possible uses include small cleanups, emergency preparedness and disaster resiliency programs, jobs programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and projects addressing illegal dumping, the White House said in a statement.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it had picked eight organizations to be regional grantmakers, including Fordham University in New York City and Texas Southern University in Houston. Other regional grantmakers are in Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Texas, Colorado, California, and Washington.

Another three groups will work at the national level, spanning all 10 of the EPA’s geographical regions: the Institute for Sustainable Communities in Vermont, the Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina, and the Climate Justice Alliance in California.

The Research Triangle Institute will get $100 million to serve as both a regional and national grantmaker. The 10 other institutions will get $50 million each.

Michael Regan, head of the EPA, said those 11 groups were selected because the agency believes they’re competent, accountable, deeply rooted to their communities, and have performance metrics to assess how effectively the resources are distributed.