Exclusive | DOGE cuts $67M in EPA grants for lefty groups pushing Bidens environmental justice mandate

The Department of Government Efficiency is putting the kibosh on more than $67 million in Environmental Protection Agency grant money once earmarked to push ex-President Joe Biden’s “environmental justice” mandate, The Post has learned.The Elon Musk-led agency this week notified the EPA it flagged 21 grants totaling $77.1 million previously awarded to 20 lefty nonprofits and universities, and it’s withholding $67.4 million in payments yet to be made, officials said.The biggest loser is Vermont-based Institute of Sustainable Communities, which has yet to receive $12.4 million of the $16 million it was promised under two separate Biden-era grants to serve as a “National Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center.”The Biden administration created three such national centers as part of its Justice40 Initiative requiring 40% of the “overall benefits” of most environmental and infrastructure programs to “flow to disadvantaged communities,” including Native American tribes.Another 18 regional centers were also created.It’s unclear what will happen to the centers without the funding.Another group losing funding was the San Diego State University Foundation, which was tapped to help bring “environmental justice” to “underserved” “tribal, indigenous and Pacific Island communities” and had yet to receive nearly $4.2 million of its $5.1 million in grants, according to a spreadsheet of the cuts reviewed by The Post.

Part of its funding was to support a regional center at the university.Others losing grant money they’ve been banking on include the New Orleans-based Deep South Center for Environmental Justice ($8 million), the Minneapolis Foundation ($7.6 million) and Baltimore-based Green & Healthy Homes Initiative ($7.2 million).The affected organizations did not return messages.EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin hailed DOGE’s actions, proclaiming “this wasteful spending ends with the Trump Administration.” �...