President Trump issued a freeze on all new grants and contracts awarded to states through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This decision will cut off financial support for states wanting to clean up air and water pollution. Jobs in the west could also take a hit as grants and contracts given to communities for clean up efforts create thousands of remediation jobs in the region.
Lastly, redevelopment can’t move forward for commercial or residential property unless brownfield and superfund sites– like former gas stations and coal mines– are treated properly. Cutting states access to these funds will be most damaging for communities that have long been polluted and are often home to low-income families and people of color.
Last year, the Western United States received nearly $1.1 billion in investment from the EPA to clean up lands and protect communities. Below is the state-by-state breakdown of where 2016 funds were invested and a link to videos showing the environmental stress the region is under already.
- Video Link
- Alaska: $78,041,746
- Arizona: $63,397,057
- California: $378,296,957
- Colorado: $91,102,584
- Hawaii: $34,671,204
- Idaho: $42,926,066
- Montana: $36,705,536
- Nevada: $49,855,548
- New Mexico: $36,331,118
- Oregon: $72,589,599
- Utah: $38,579,080
- Washington: $152,765,392
- Wyoming: $22,960,809
Bill Corcoran, Western Director for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, released the following statement:
“Freezing all new grants and contracts issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hurt the states first and the worst. For decades, communities across the west have relied on the EPA to finance critical projects that protect public health, create jobs, redevelop land for commercial or residential use, while also cleaning up the air and water in communities on the frontlines of environmental injustice. This step backwards will make it harder for towns from Montana to Arizona to pay for important clean up efforts that support jobs and enhance our quality of life. This deeply flawed decision must be reversed immediately.”
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