(AGENPARL) – mer 08 gennaio 2025 2021_EPA_NewsRelease_cision.png (https://www.epa.gov/newsroom)
Biden-Harris Administration Announces Over $33 Million in Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants for Texas Organizations
DALLAS, TEXAS (January 8, 2025) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it has selected three Texas organizations for the Community Change Grants Program, totaling $33,300,000 in awards to advance local, on-the-ground projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience, and build community capacity. The selectees for Texas are Mission Waco Mission World, Big Bend Conservation Alliance, and Air Alliance Houston. This funding is made possible by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the Community Change Grants Program is the single largest investment in environmental and climate justice in history.
The funding announced represents the latest round of applications that have been selected on a rolling basis since the program launched in November 2023. EPA previously announced (https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden-harris-administration-announces-more-325-million-environmental-and-climate)  21 selectees in July. This announcement adds 84 new selectees, bringing the total number to 105.
“On day one of his Administration, President Biden promised to target investments to communities that for too long have been shut out of federal funding,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “Today, thanks to President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, EPA is delivering on that promise. These selections will create jobs, improve public health, and uplift community efforts in all corners of this country, regardless of geography or background.”
Mission Waco Mission World will partner with the City of Waco to receive $17.9 million to focus on disadvantaged communities in the City of Waco and McLennan County, Texas. This project will create three resilience hubs at existing community facilities to serve as education and workforce development centers, emergency response centers, and temporary shelters for unhoused populations. The project will install solar and provide HVAC and energy efficiency upgrades at the resilience hubs and invest in tree planting and other nature-based solutions to expand shade and improve stormwater management. Additionally, food waste will be diverted from the landfill by expanding Waco residents’ knowledge of and access to compost and community gardens. This collaboration will offer numerous internship, training, and professional development opportunities focused on food waste diversion and composting.
Big Bend Conservation Alliance will partner with the City of Presidio to receive $12.5 million to establish a solar-powered resilience center that can serve as a cooling center during heat waves and power outages. The primary area of focus will be the area around the town of Presidio. Presidio is a rural town in the most isolated part of Texas; the town and its sister city, Ojinaga, Chihuahua, sit at the US-Mexico border, 250 miles from the nearest metropolitan area. To reduce the heat island effect and expand the tree canopy for shade, the project will plant more than 1,000 trees to create a greenbelt that connects the town’s services including the schools, library, senior center, grocery store, recreation center, medical clinic, and more. They also will offer more than 1,600 trees for planting on private properties and plant 1,500 trees in existing recreational areas and along sidewalks. In addition, the project will develop three detention ponds to capture water runoff and recharge the aquifer.
Air Alliance Houston will partner with Houston Advanced Research Center to receive $2.9 million to work 10 counties across three regions of Southeast Texas: Golden Triangle (Port Arthur area), Greater Houston-Galveston Area, and Coastal Bend (Corpus Christi area). The project activities include from this funding will include: conducting community-based and citizen-science initiatives that inform government processes; preparing, training, and educating communities on how to engage in government processes, with a focus on permitting decisions; land use, highway construction, and infrastructure decisions; and developing community benefit plans/agreements in the region.
See the full listing of the 105 selections receiving a Community Change grant and learn more about the program (https://www.epa.gov/inflation-reduction-act/community-change-grants-selections) .
Of the 105 total selections, 32 are for Target Investment Areas, totaling $600 million. Target Investment Area funding is intended to ensure that Community Change Grants Program funding is directed towards disadvantaged communities with unique circumstances, geography, and needs. This includes approximately $150 million for Alaska Native communities and organizations.
Applications to the Community Change Grants Program, administered through EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-office-environmental-justice-and-external-civil-rights), closed on November 21, 2024. The agency received approximately 2,700 applications, totaling over $40 billion in requested funds and over 2,495 requests for technical assistance. The Community Change Grants Program addresses the diverse and unique needs of disadvantaged communities by reducing and preventing air, water, and soil pollution, building resilient infrastructure to extreme weather events, and bolstering workforce development.
EPA is on track to obligate the majority of selected Community Change grants by January 2025. Given the overwhelming number of applications still under review and the limited amount of remaining funds available, EPA’s work to evaluate the remaining applicants will need to continue beyond the end of the Biden-Harris Administration. To ensure all applications are given fair consideration, EPA will not make any additional selections until all these applications are evaluated according to the processes described in the Notice of Funding Opportunity issued in November 2023.
To learn more about environmental justice at EPA, visit EPA’s Environmental Justice webpage (https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice) .