Floods are swallowing their village. Trump’s EPA cut a major lifeline for them and others | Trump administration
This story was initially published by Floodlight
Acre by acre, the village of Kipnuk falls into the river.
The small tribal village of Alaska is on the permafrost, which quickly relieves as global temperatures increase. This left the banks of the unstable Kugkaktlik river – and more likely to collapse when the floods have struck, as they often do. Buildings, walks, wind turbines and other critical infrastructures are in danger, according to Rayna Paul, village environmental director.
Thus, when the village learned at the end of last year that it had received a federal subsidy of $ 20 million to protect the shore, the members of the tribe pushed a sigh of relief.
But this relief was short -lived. On May 2, the American environmental protection agency canceled the subsidy. Without this help, says Paul, residents can be forced to move their village.
“In the future, so many lands will be in the river,” says Paul.
The Kipnuk subsidy was one of the more than 600 that the EPA canceled since Donald Trump took office, according to data obtained by Floodlight thanks to a request from the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA). Until May 15, the cuts totaled more than $ 2.7 billion.
Analysis by flood data shows: Watch:
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EPA has also canceled more than $ 120 million in subsidies to reduce the carbon footprint of cement, concrete and other building materials. Floodlight reported in April that carbon emissions from the cement industry compete with those of certain important countries – and that efforts to decarbonize industry have lost alliance under the Trump administration.
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The largest canceled scholarship: a price of $ 95 million at the Research Triangle Institute, an organization of scientific research based in Northern Carolina which had planned to distribute money to poorly served communities. RTI has also lost five other EPA subsidies, totaling more than $ 36 million.
The EPA plans to reduce even more subsidies, the Washington Post reported at the end of April on a judicial file which showed that it had targeted 781 subsidies issued under Biden.
The foia shows that the majority of them have now been canceled; More cuts could follow.
Devices of legal proceedings Grant Cancellations
Last month, a coalition of non -profit organizations, tribes and local governments continued the EPA, alleging that the Trump administration broke the law by canceling the environmental and climatic justice that the Congress had already funded.
“The termination of these grant programs has caused generalized damage and disturbances to the field projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience and strengthen community capacity to combat environmental damage,” said Hana Vizcarra, main lawyer for Earthjustice, one of the non -profit organizations. “We will not leave it standing.”
The EPA refused to comment on the trial. But in a written response to the spotlight, the agency declared this about the cancellations of subsidies: “The administration of Biden-Harris should not have forced their radical program of useless Dei and” environmental justice “preferably to the main mission of EPA. The EPA Trump will continue to work with states, tribes and communities to support projects that advance the agency’s central mission to protect human health and the environment.
The Congress created the program of subsidies on the blocks of environmental and climatic justice in 2022 during its promulgation of the law on the reduction of inflation (IRA), the Joe Biden’s historic climate bill. The program has been designed to help disadvantaged communities which are often the hardest affected by pollution and climate change.
But on January 20, the first day of Trump’s return, he signed a decree interrupting funding under IRA, including money for environmental justice. Trump also canceled the executive orders of the Biden era that federal agencies prioritize the fight against environmental racism, and separately in its orders on diversity, equity and inclusion called for the closure of all the offices of environmental justice and posts in the federal government.
Poorly served communities are often the most vulnerable to climatic impacts such as heat waves and floods because they have fewer resources to prepare or recover, according to an EPA analysis in 2021.
Inside the agency, not everyone agrees with the new management. In a “dissent declaration”, more than 200 current and former EPA employees have spoken out against Trump administration policies, including the decision to dismantle the agency’s environmental justice program.
“Canceling environmental justice programs does not reduce waste; He cannot serve the American people, ”they wrote.
On Thursday, the EPA put 139 of the employees who signed the petition on administrative leave, reported Inside Climate News.
Hope to Songrin in Texas
The inhabitants of Dowwinders at risk, a small non -profit organization of Texas which helps communities to hurt by air pollution, thought finally to take a break.
Last year, they learned that EPA granted them a subsidy of $ 500,000 – enough to install new new air quality monitors in the working class neighborhoods near asphalt shingles, a gas well and a hydraulic fracturing operation in the Dallas -Fort Worth area. The data would have helped residents to avoid the worst air and plan their days around pollution peaks.
But on May 1, the three employees of the group received the news they had feared: their subsidy had been canceled.
“It was a very bitter pill to swallow,” said Caleb Roberts, executive director of the group.
He and his team had devoted more than 100 hours to the process of demand and compliance.
The annual non -profit organization budget is just over $ 250,000, and federal funding would have enabled the group to extend its scope after years of scratch. They had even taken a fundraising break for six months, confident that federal money was on the way.
“We have the impression that we are again in Ground Zero,” said Roberts. “And it’s just very unhappy.”
The flood is a non -profit editorial room which investigates the powers that block climate action
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