Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin recently announced that the agency would cut billions of dollars in clean energy programs and grants focused on environmental justice, in the name of government efficiency. But that “efficiency” leaves many programs and groups scrambling.
El Puente, a local non-profit operating in Williamsburg for over 40 years, shared that the EPA rescinded a grant totaling $3.1 million. El Puente won a Communities Change Grant, funding which allows historically marginalized communities to enact programming that addresses climate change on a local level. They applied for the program last June and received notice that they had been pre-selected as a grantee the following October. This January, the EPA officially confirmed them as grantees.
“We even began to receive initial funds and proceeded with job postings and programming plans. But then, following the shift in federal administration, the grant was abruptly frozen,” Asenhat Gomez, El Puente’s interim co-executive director, told Greenpointers. “It was briefly released, then frozen again, and ultimately terminated just three weeks ago, without a clear explanation or public justification.”
El Puente planned to use the funding to support existing staff members, hire additional ones, and continue to finance their Green Light District program, an initiative to support citizen science at a local level. However, this loss affects programming across the board, including the youth bike club (we recently spoke to the group about their planned ride from Brooklyn to Boston).
El Puente joins two other local non-profits dealing with federal funding cuts. In early May, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) rescinded grants worth thousands of dollars from The Brick, a theater in Williamsburg, and n+1, a literary and cultural publication.
The Trump administration specifically targeted environmental justice programs as part of their ongoing assault on D.E.I. initiatives, which they claim are discriminatory and wasteful. A judge ruled against the EPA in April, stating that the agency had not produced credible evidence to justify claims that any grantees had mismanaged funds; a legal fight is ongoing.
Environmental justice means addressing systemic inequalities to poor or marginalized communities who have suffered from hazardous environmental conditions, whether that be pipelines and landfills situated in historically Black neighborhoods or poor air quality from living next to a highway. For El Puente, the fight is bigger than just them.
“First and foremost, people need to recognize that this is not just about our organization. This is about a coordinated attack on BIPOC-led, immigrant-rooted, grassroots institutions across the country,” said Gomez. “This is not random, it’s a pattern. We will continue to see cuts like this for the next four years unless we speak out and show up.”
Gomez encouraged supporters to spread the word, come to events, donate, and most importantly, connect with other community members. WEPA! the organization’s annual centerpiece festival, takes on new resonance this year as it morphs into a hybrid of performance and protest. El Puente will use the event to help raise funds—the event takes place on September 27.
“We are not going to shrink from this fight. We know who we are. We’ve been organizing in Los Sures and Bushwick for over 40 years,” said Gomez. “We’ve trained generations of youth to be climate leaders, cultural bearers, and community organizers. And we’ve done it all while resisting displacement, toxic development, and political erasure.”