Three nonprofit organizations located in Baltimore, Minneapolis, and Seattle that had been named Regional Grantmakers and awarded grants under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Maryland challenging EPA’s termination of their initial grant awards. The complaint alleged that the Thriving Communities program was established by the Inflation Reduction Act, which appropriated $3 billion to EPA for “climate and environmental justice block grants” and mandated that the funds by used to support activities that monitor, prevent, and remediate pollution and mitigate climate risks in “disadvantaged communities.” The plaintiffs asserted that the termination of the initial grant awards constituted arbitrary and capricious agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act because EPA provided only “vague and baseless grounds” for the action: (1) that the grants were inconsistent with EPA’s newly adopted “Agency priority” to withdraw financial support from “organizations that promote or take part in … ‘DEI’ [or] ‘environmental justice’ initiatives”; (2) that the organizations’ programs were purportedly not “free from fraud, abuse, waste, or duplication”; and (3) that the programs “otherwise fail to serve the best interests of the United States.” The complaint also asserted that EPA acted in excess of its authority under the Clean Air Act as amended by Inflation Reduction Act; that EPA’s actions infringed the organizations’ rights under the First and Fifth Amendments; and that EPA failed to abide by federal grant regulations.

Challenge to EPA’s termination of initial grant awards under the Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program established by the Inflation Reduction Act.

Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, Inc. v. EPA

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Nonprofit Groups Challenged Termination of EPA Thriving Communities Grants

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

People whose sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression differs from the majority or societal norms

People who are less able to respond to the effects of climate change due to having limited financial or physical assets

A ban is a legal action that prevents the sale or supply of a product or service, or that recalls a product from the market. Examples are bans on SF6, greenwashing, fossil fuel advertisement or single-use plastics.

Aligning the skills of the workforce with the requirements of the just transition.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater systems to climate change.

Actions to adapt human health, healthcare systems and well-being to climate change.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Hot temperature extremes are daily maximum temperatures  that were exceeded on average once in a decade or once in 50 years, and includes heatwaves.

Actions to reduce emissions in energy generation and supply.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

Production of electricity and heat from solar irradiation.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

Jobs that contribute to preserving or restoring the environment. We include jobs which require a high amount of green skills or which spend much of their time on green activities, as well as jobs transforming polluting industries.

Any compulsory, unrequited payment to the government levied on corporations or individuals. This can be for environmental reasons, such as introducing a Carbon tax to set a price that emitters must pay for the greenhouse gases they emit.

This sector involves managing waste treatment, sanitation, pollution control and environmental cleanup.

This sector provides communication services, software development, and IT solutions.

Activities of government agencies and institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and manage public resources.

This sector involves the distribution, treatment, and conservation of water resources.

Any substance with chemical properties that can cause physical harm to people or damage the environment, including ammonia, carbon monoxide, phosphine, chlorine, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, pesticides, dioxins, microplastics, benzene, asbestos, aflatoxins, fluoride, methanol, and toxins from marine sources.

Climate change impacts our society by disrupting the natural, economic and social systems we depend on. Physical hazards and underlying vulnerabilities can lead to increased resource competition for food and water, which can heighten the risk of conflict.

Nonprofit Groups Challenged Termination of EPA Thriving Communities Grants

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Just transition

Renewable energy

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance