A half-million-dollar grant for planting trees and assessing climate risks in McLean County has been cut.
Ecology Action Center [EAC] received a letter this week from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [USEPA] that the agency will no longer receive $498,000 from its Environmental Justice Cooperative Problem Solving [EJCPS] program. The grant was to kick start a new initiative called the Bloomington Normal Climate Responsive Community [BNCRC], aimed at addressing poor air and water quality in historically disinvested neighborhoods — an issue referred to as environmental justice.
Portions of the grant were earmarked for several community partners, including faculty researchers at Illinois State University, United Way of McLean County, Mid Central Community Action and the McLean County Health Department.
According to EAC executive director Michael Brown, the Normal nonprofit has seen intermittent funding interruptions since January, when attempts to slash federal spending by the Trump administration left nonprofits scrambling.
“Late Wednesday afternoon, we did receive a letter of termination,” Brown said of their EJCPS grant. “This is the first communication we’ve seen from USEPA since Jan. 20.”
Ecology Action Center's award was part of a larger, now scrapped EPA environmental justice program using Inflation Reduction Act funding passed by Congress.
For now, Brown said he is still able to draw funds from a second federal grant supporting an air quality monitoring program underway, called BN-CARE. There is strong local, state and private support of EAC's programs, he said, allowing them to continue planting trees and cleaning the air. But federal grants allow Ecology Action Center to significantly scale up the size and scope of their projects and work on a faster timeline.
“As they say, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago,” he said. “The second-best time is today.”
It’s not clear to Brown if the cuts came from the EPA directly, or if it’s related to broad, interagency cuts initiated by the Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] led by Trump campaign donor Elon Musk, who owns the electric vehicle company Tesla.
The administration’s “anti-woke” agenda has targeted programs, funding, web pages and archival materials as part of a broader effort to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion from government. Brown does not know if the program was targeted because of its name or something else.
“This communication did come from our grant officer with USEPA Region 5, who has been a part of the project all along,” Brown said. “I’m extremely sure this is not her decision. It’s much higher up than her.”
The letter identifies three possible explanations for canceling their grant: waste, fraud and abuse; issues of merit, fairness or excellence; and whether or not the project is in the best interest of the United States. It does not clarify which of those applies here.
“I’m completely confused,” Brown said. “The reality is, these are boiler plate, canned communications. I don’t believe it’s actually any of these things.”
There is an appeal process EAC will follow. Brown doesn't expect it will go anywhere amid what he sees as a baffling politicization of an issue that has enjoyed bipartisan support for decades.
“The Clean Air Act was two major pieces of legislation, the first signed into law by Lyndon Johnson, the second by Richard Nixon,” he said. “We had a time and place where the environment was apolitical. Conservation has long been a conservative value and still is. But suddenly, in this very polarized world we’re now in, the environment has become a very partisan issue — and I don’t know why.”
