Stolen Futures: Communities Betrayed by Federal Clawbacks

Securing funding for community-driven solutions has always proven a challenge, even when the projects provide life-saving health and safety improvements. In 2023, when these grant opportunities were announced, thousands of communities jumped through every hoop, met with federal technical assistance providers, and spent critical staff and organizational time developing projects with their city and county EPA. For example, one Climate Pollution Reduction grant, a state-level grant that continues to have funding, was awarded to fund critical community work in Duwamish Valley, Washington, in partnership with the Tribal community, who were leading the cleanup of a Superfund site polluted by corporate polluters. Small organizations from more than 40 red and blue states were awarded transformational grants to make communities healthier, safer, more energy efficient, and more resilient to climate change and disaster. Hear more community stories in the Stolen Futures Storymap by WE ACT for Environmental Justice.

These grants represented a historic level of funding for urgent local priorities. But just as the majority of awards were announced and cities were getting to work, the Trump administration unlawfully terminated and canceled the congressionally mandated funding for these projects, resulting in hundreds of organizations and thousands of communities that can no longer not benefit from the grantees’ efforts to clean up contaminated sites, improve air and water quality, and provide services that improve their health and well-being. 

For some communities, these grants were a lifeline to address dangerous health impacts from poor air quality and hazardous toxics and were aimed toward improving life expectancy, reducing the risk of stroke, and lowering rates of lung cancer and other neurological and cardiovascular conditions within the grant area over the long term. In the short term, many of these grant projects planned to reduce respiratory issues like asthma and overall emergency hospital admissions, just by implementing these projects.

Some communities like Pocatello, Idaho, are struggling with years and often generations of disinvestment among new environmental risks and were planning to use the funds to invest in much-needed water infrastructure and necessary stormwater management upgrades. The EPA Community Change grant required communities to submit a project that would decrease pollution; improve climate; reduce health risk and exposures; and outline fair-paid jobs that would be created by the project. Cities like Denver have been impacted by flooding and wildfires and were relying on these funds to make their communities safer and more resilient to worsening climate disasters. People for Community Recovery (PCR) in Illinois battled to save a historic building from demolition since 2021, and it was planning to use its Community Change grant to transform it into the Hazel M. Johnson Institute for Sustainability and Environmental Justice, a green community hub. 

“We were just excited that there [was] a clear path and a real opportunity to get funding for the rehabilitation of this building,” says Cheryl Johnson, executive director of PCR. “So now, we are at ground zero when it comes to raising the money for construction costs to get the building up and running.”

The EPA Solar for All grant was intended to make residential solar energy accessible to U.S. neighborhoods, enabling millions of low-income households to access affordable, resilient, and clean solar energy. When 60 cities, counties, and community-based organizations like Austin Energy and PODER came together to build the Texas Solar for All Coalition, they spent months meeting with city managers and stakeholders to devise how to accelerate clean energy investments; reduce emissions of greenhouse gases; close the solar equity gap for energy-burdened, low-income families and the medically vulnerable; and create good green jobs in their communities. In August 2025, the Trump administration canceled the Solar for All grant and stole back every dollar from the communities, leaving them desperately searching for alternative sourcing of funding. “We needed Solar for All after Winter Storm Uri—folks losing energy and water, lives lost,” says Alexia Leclercq, former policy director of PODER. “We need access to clean, affordable, reliable energy.”  

What kind of administration steals dollars back from communities after the awards have gone out, people have been hired for the work, and the materials have been bought? In 2025, some organizations found themselves threatened with the possibility of federal lawsuits to reclaim dollars they had already spent. Under the Trump administration, the federal staff implementing these grants suddenly went silent after the administration fired numerous employees and defunded key departments became unresponsive, leaving grantees confused about grant compliance and without a way to access their funds.

Our federal government should never go back on its word or the contracts it has signed with small communities for crucial projects, or leave U.S. communities feeling threatened for speaking out while others find themselves in courtrooms. Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and/or Inflation Reduction Act, these programs were intended to fund projects that would help solve long-standing health challenges, meet the threat of extreme weather and disasters, and spur good jobs and economic growth for decades to come in our cities and states. They were intended to reduce legacy air and water pollution, to remove and remediate hazardous chemicals from our communities, and help keep our homes, schools, and public buildings safer for all of us. Without these projects, communities continue to face flood impacts, skyrocketing energy bills, and more children being poisoned by lead in drinking water, asbestos, or mold in their homes. We should prioritize cleaning up and preventing pollution so we can leave behind a healthier, cleaner, and fairer country for future generations of Americans—not finance the administration’s tax cuts for billionaires and big polluters.

Congress must reclaim the power of the purse and call on the EPA to return these important funds to the communities they were promised to so we can make our communities safer, healthier, and more affordable. If your community has been impacted by President Trump’s cuts, talk to your community leaders about your project and what it means to the health and resiliency of your neighborhood. 

NRDC and WE ACT and our partners will be meeting with decision-makers in Washington, D.C., to uplift these projects and reach out to funders and philanthropic organizations on how to get these important projects and organizations funded in the midst of this gutting of community-led projects.

While some state-level grants continue to support limited work, communities know best what their neighborhoods need and how to remedy years of dangerous pollution, environmental damage, and harm from disasters. Community leaders, organizations, cities, counties, and states should reach out to their elected officials and demand that the Trump administration honor its word and return this crucial community funding.

You can also learn  more about community stories with Stolen Futures: Communities Betrayed by Funding Clawbacks StoryMap by WE ACT for Environmental Justice.