Air Alliance Houston recently joined a coalition of nonprofits, Tribes, and local governments in suing the Trump administration for unlawfully terminating the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Environmental and Climate Justice (ECJ) Grant programs despite a congressional directive to fund them.
The plaintiffs come from every region of the country and will be seeking class action certification so that all 350 grant recipients who have been harmed by the wholesale termination of the EPA program may continue their projects.
“We have been told by the Trump Administration that clean air is a priority for all Americans,” said Air Alliance Houston Executive Director Jennifer M. Hadayia, MPA. “The illegal cancellation of these clean air grants will do the exact opposite. Here in Houston, one of the most polluted cities in the country, our grant would have helped people who live day-to-day with air pollution to have a meaningful say in the environmental decisions that affect their lives.
“Now, communities like ours will not receive the critical support needed to make change, support that we legally and contractually received.”
This is an issue that specifically impacts Black people in Houston because the Bayou City has been ground zero for environmental racism and the outsized polluting of Black and Brown neighborhoods for generations. Dr. Robert Bullard, world-renowned for his work in the environmental justice space, started his campaign fighting for cleaner Black and Brown communities right here in Houston in 1979.
Bullard started researching and documenting environmental injustices after his wife, Linda McKeever Bullard, asked him to help with a lawsuit concerning a landfill in a predominantly Black neighborhood. The case, known as Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management, Inc., was the first of its kind to charge environmental discrimination based on civil rights laws.
That landmark lawsuit focused on environmental injustices befalling Northwood Manor, located in East Houston. But there are several predominantly Black and Brown Houston-area neighborhoods that rank as the highest polluted in the city and the southwest region.
Two of those communities in particular, impacted by the Trump administration’s move to defund national EPA programs, are the Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens. The Fifth Ward alone is home to six cancer clusters, allegedly caused by the Union Pacific Railroad.
“It’s a lot of pollution going on,” said Marcus Glenn, program developer of the Black United Fund Houston (BUFTX). “We’re looking for ways to help reduce asthma and different chronic illnesses that are tied to these environmental issues in a holistic way.”
BUFTX, with a $200K EPA grant, partnered with the Houston Health Department, HCC-Northeast’s Global Center for Energy Excellence, The Green Thumb Academy and South Union CDC to offer free solar training to community members. Preference was given to residents of the Fifth Ward, Kashmere Gardens and Denver Harbor. The initiative would not only help reduce pollution but also provide training and certifications for employment.
That funding, however, was taken back with the Trump administration’s termination of EPA programs.
Hadayia said Air Alliance Houston joined this suit because the organization believes everyone has the right to breathe clean air and that having the resources to do this important work on behalf of communities is worth fighting for.
The EPA grants supported community-based initiatives that include improving natural disaster preparedness, expanding workforce development opportunities, improving and monitoring air quality, mitigating stormwater and flood damage, combating high energy costs and improving community members’ ability to participate in decision-making and permitting processes that impact their health and environment.
Earthjustice, Southern Environmental Law Center, Public Rights Project and Lawyers for Good Government filed the challenge on behalf of ECJ grant recipients to seek the nationwide restoration of the program and to require the administration to reinstate awarded grant agreements.
The Environmental and Climate Justice Program was created by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) under Clean Air Act (CAA) Section 138 to award $3 billion in grants to community-based non-profits, Tribes, local governments and higher education institutions in every state to tackle the climate crisis and environmental harms at the local level.
The grant-funded initiatives in rural, small town and urban communities across the country include air quality monitoring, community pollution notification systems, tree planting in urban heat zones, lead pipes replacement in community drinking water systems, resilience projects to strengthen communities against more frequent and intensifying extreme weather events and more.
“Unlawfully ending this program threatens the ability of local governments to protect their people and the environment,” said Jon Miller, chief program officer, Public Rights Project. “This case isn’t just about restoring grant funding in a handful of places — it’s about restoring critical services and projects in areas of the country with the greatest need. We’re fighting alongside our partners to right the wrongs of the past and chart a healthier path forward for thousands of organizations, Tribes and communities.”
SELC Litigation Director Kym Meyer concurred.
“Environmental justice grants were created to address the real harm to public health in communities of color and low-wealth communities,” said Meyer. “No one voted for community-based organizations to get the rug pulled out from under them. This administration is using political rhetoric as an excuse to unlawfully take away money that Congress appropriated for these projects. This lawsuit will prove that in court.”