We recently shared an article published in Environmental Health News describing the impacts of potential rollbacks to EPA’s environmental justice (EJ) grants. The article describes how these programs are designed to protect human health and the environment and strengthen communities’ ability to manage natural disasters.
One way to learn more about environmental justice grants that are in jeopardy is to view the environmental justice grants map. This map shows where funding via the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was to be invested.
This map previously appeared on EPA’s EJScreen web resource, making it possible for anyone to track how the agency was investing resources in communities across the country. The entire EJScreen resource has now been removed from EPA’s website, so the version we are using for reference is the re-created map restored by the Environmental Data Governance Initiative (EDGI).
There’s a lot to learn here, so it can be useful to look at it from a few different angles. Below is some of what we’ve learned about the grants – by theme, by state, and by individual community.
Preparing for weather disasters
Some grant projects are designed to provide portable solar kits, safe shelters for weather disasters (referred to as “resiliency centers”), and HEPA air filters for communities to use in areas where air pollution is severe due to wildfires.
Exposure to wildfire smoke is a significant cause of disease and death. Exposure to wildfire smoke during pregnancy poses threats to fetal development and to perinatal health. To learn more about the health effects of wildfires, see CHE’s 2021 webinar, Health Effects of Wildfires: How to protect yourself and your family.
HEPA filters also provide a range of additional health benefits. They help to mitigate other indoor air quality problems in addition to wildfire smoke. For example, they reduce airborne pathogens and they address other types of particulate matter, including PM2.5 pollution from cars and industrial emissions. If lead dust is present in a home, HEPA filters also reduce lead particulates in indoor air. You can learn more about the benefits of HEPA filters from CHE's 2021 webinar, Delta and Reducing Airborne Transmission in Schools; this webinar was focused on COVID, but also includes a more general explanation of HEPA filters and their effectiveness.
Protecting the next generation
Other grants were designed to protect infants and children from the life-long, irreversible health effects of lead exposure.
These included funds for replacement of lead service lines as well as distribution of point-of-use water filters to remove lead at the tap. To learn more about lead in US drinking water, see CHE’s 2019 webinar, Lead in Drinking Water: The Science and Public Health Safeguards.
Grant funds were also designated for youth engagement, urban greening, and urban tree planting and garden projects. These projects were intended to build skills and knowledge for the next generation, while making cities more liveable in the face of increasingly intense heat waves.
Browsing the map: Examples from Texas, Louisiana, & Maine
Browsing the map to learn more, we can see communities that – prior to a pause and threats of cancellations – were on track to make significant investments via environmental justice grants.
For example, four grants appear on the map for Louisiana. One of these grants provides funds for “electric vehicle charging stations, solar panels, and battery storage,” on a university campus and at two “United Way Prosperity Centers, which will be transformed into resilience centers.” This grant also includes investments in energy efficiency and upgrades to heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) systems. These are practical investments that would directly improve residents’ health and safety and help prepare these communities for severe weather events.
More than a dozen grants appear on the map for Texas. One focuses on a community an hour and a half from El Paso that does not have access to piped water. Another project includes air quality monitoring and planting of vegetative buffers along roadways, helping to improve air quality and reduce heat island effects during extreme heat events. These projects were designed to provide stronger protections to those most affected by air pollution and extreme heat, including infants and children, the elderly, and those with chronic health conditions.
Five grants appear on the map for the state of Maine. One grant includes development of “clean energy career pathways for marginalized populations in underserved communities,” with “pre-apprenticeship and registered apprenticeship programs.” Another grant provides heat pumps for tribal housing units, while another focuses on the needs of coastal communities.
If you decide to do some browsing yourself, note that you can also click at the bottom right corner of the screen to filter by grant type – for example, you can select Community Change Grants to read about the infrastructure investments that those grants are designed to provide.
Learning more: Interviews with former & current staff
Inside Climate News has published an extended interview with David Cash, former EPA Region 1 Administrator, discussing the significance of these grants in terms of both public health and environmental justice. He discusses the city of Springfield, MA as an example.
Springfield is “a low-income community with a median income that’s about half the state average. It’s also a majority-minority community. It has one of the highest asthma rates in the country…” EJ grant funding was designated to improve energy efficiency in municipal buildings, provide energy retrofits for people living in apartments, and “invest in electric vehicles within the municipal fleet.”
“Some of this money was going to go to clean up houses that continually have mold problems, which we know cause asthma, or have lead pipes. This was going to save the city money so they could focus, let’s say, on education instead of energy costs, and it was going to save money for these customers.”
An EPA staff member interviewed for a WAMU 1A podcast described other examples of projects that the EJ grants are designed to support. These include: “upgrading the HVAC system at Fairview Elementary in Highpoint, North Carolina, so going to school won’t make students sick; testing children in Harrison County, West Virginia, for high blood lead levels, and giving them health interventions if they have them; weatherizing homes in Baton Rouge, Louisiana against future storms; and improving water infrastructure and stormwater management in Pocatello, Idaho.”
What happens from here?
The map shows all the grants that were awarded under the IRA. It does not show which ones have been canceled or suspended. This is a quickly evolving situation. As noted on the map, “The EPA Administrator previously announced his intention to cancel many of the agency's grants and contracts and their status is quickly changing: some recipients have lost access to funds, received notices of termination, or find themselves uncertain of their status.”
Explore these resources for additional information:
- An open letter from EPA staff to the American public (Environmental Health News, March 20, 2025)
- Inside Climate News interview with David Cash: What Gutting Environmental Justice Means for the Future of the EPA
- Map of EPA Environmental Justice Grants
- Podcast interview with an EPA staff member: The Future of Environmental Policy (WAMU 1A, March 25, 2025)
Rachel Massey, ScD is Senior Science and Policy Advisor at the Collaborative for Health and Environment and Senior Research Associate at the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.