FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 3, 2025
Contact: Ashley Sullivan, ashley.sullivan@weact.org
WASHINGTON – Following a memo which was rescinded by the Trump administration directing an unlawful pause on thousands of federal grants and loans negatively impacting millions of people, Trump executive orders have continued to force the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to illegally halt access to already allocated grant funding. In response, WE ACT for Environmental Justice emphasizes that the act by the administration to freeze the Solar for All funds from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed by Congress during the Biden-Harris administration is against the law and unconstitutional. Taking away already obligated funds will eliminate jobs, clean energy opportunities, and raise energy costs. This also unfairly targets communities of color and low-income people, especially in Republican states, that have faced pollution and underinvestment for decades.
WE ACT, in coalition with partners, strongly supported the creation of the GGRF, made possible through the advocacy of countless environmental justice groups and communities from across the U.S. The GGRF, especially the Solar for All program, would achieve transformational, long-lasting positive outcomes for communities of color and areas of low income. The benefits include increasing equitable access to renewable energy, reducing energy burdens for households, and making critical improvements for air quality and public health.
Leslie Fields, WE ACT for Environmental Justice’s Chief Federal Officer shares:
“The GGRF’s Solar for All program is critical for addressing the real-time, severe impacts of the climate crisis and overwhelming burden of pollution facing our communities. The Trump administration’s freeze of these funds to be distributed by the EPA is against the law and bad policy. These funds have been awarded and the government is legally obligated to pay those who have been granted. Holding back these funds limits access to clean, affordable energy and the growth of the green economy, including potential benefits such as jobs, and cost savings for those most harmed by extreme heat, growing natural disasters, and legacy pollution. The move to violate the law and the trust of the people of this country is a depiction of the self-serving, disconnected nature of this administration. This act is further evidence of the Trump administration centering environmental racism as part of their agenda.“
# # #
WE ACT for Environmental Justice is a Northern Manhattan-based, membership-driven organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low-income residents are meaningfully included in the development of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Visit us at weact.org and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, Twitter/X, and Instagram.