The Trump administration said Thursday that it canceled a federal grant to a climate nonprofit over the group’s protected First Amendment speech.
The Climate Justice Alliance, a nonprofit that organizes on climate issues in poor and Indigenous communities, was awarded a multimillion-dollar grant under former President Joe Biden’s climate infrastructure package. The Biden administration, however, later delayed that funding over the group’s support for Palestine, The Intercept reported.
Last month, the group received word that it would not receive the funding under President Donald Trump.
The Environmental Protection Agency, which issues the grant, previously said it was continuing to evaluate the funding. On Thursday, however, Trump’s appointee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency posted a tweet that seemed to confirm what the nonprofit has been saying all along: The government canceled its grant in retaliation over its public statements on Palestine.
“I just cancelled a $50 MILLION Biden-era environmental justice grant to the Climate Justice Alliance, which believes ‘climate justice travels through a Free Palestine,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin wrote in a tweet on Thursday. (The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
CJA collaborates with close to 100 smaller groups, community networks, and other grassroots organizations that deal with climate issues in working-class rural and urban communities. Its direct work has little to do with Palestine, but it has connected its mission of climate justice to the effects of war in Palestine as a global climate issue. CJA also put out a statement calling for a ceasefire shortly after the October 7 attacks in 2023.
In a post to Instagram on Thursday featuring a screenshot of Zeldin’s tweet, CJA wrote that the Biden administration had left its fate in the unwelcoming hands of Trump. (Asked for comment, CJA referred The Intercept to its social media statement.) The group said the grant would have helped create sustainable jobs, provide resources for projects to protect public health and safety, and benefited taxpayers and working-class families.
“The Administration continues its attacks on working class communities, rural and urban families with its announcement of the cancellation of the Climate Justice Alliance’s UNITE-EJ program grant,” CJA wrote, referring to the EPA grant.
“Unfortunately, the Biden administration failed to process these obligated funds intended to help communities facing disasters from climate change and left the decision in the hands of the Trump administration. Despite claims that this administration will protect clean water and clean air for the nation it has attacked basic protections for neglected communities from day one.”
Republican lawmakers and right-wing media have also targeted CJA, claiming it exhibited “anti-Republican sentiment” and wanted to “defund the police.” Republicans also slammed the group for supporting a Green New Deal.
Trump is increasingly using political attacks as a policy tool, starting with his support for a “nonprofit killer bill” passed in the House last year. The bill would allow the Treasury secretary to strip nonprofit status from groups it designates as a “terrorist supporting organization.”
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I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
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