Judge un-freezes environmental justice funds for Northwest
June 23, 2025
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release $180 million in federal funding for environmental justice projects, including $60 million in the Pacific Northwest.
The Environmental Protection Agency had blocked that funding in February.
The agency had selected Seattle-based Philanthropy Northwest in 2023 to distribute competitive grant funds to disadvantaged communities trying to fight pollution or adapt to climate change in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
Philanthropy Northwest, the Minneapolis Foundation, and Baltimore-based Green and Healthy Homes Initiative sued EPA in April. Each regional organization had $60 million in EPA funds frozen as the agency canceled its environmental justice programs.
“We are thrilled with the court’s decision, and we know that there is a road ahead, and are committed to doing our best to secure these funds,” Meredith Higashi with Philanthropy Northwest said.
An EPA spokesperson declined an interview request and said the agency is reviewing the decision.
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More than 700 groups had applied to Philanthropy Northwest for the federal grants before they were frozen.
Higashi declined to identify specific grantees because their contracts have not been signed yet, but shared three expected grant projects in Washington state:
• A decarbonization campaign for rural Snohomish County communities;
• A tribe’s work to strengthen regional emergency management on the Olympic Peninsula;
• And awareness building for migrant and refugee communities in Skagit, Yakima, and Thurston counties about the impacts of wildfire smoke and agricultural pesticides.
The funding was part of $3 billion in climate and environmental justice grants authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act during the Biden administration.
“The previous Administration used DEI and Environmental Justice to advance ideological priorities, distributing billions of dollars to organizations in the name of climate equity,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a Feb. 11 press release. “This ends now.”
U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland Judge Adam Abelson wrote in his ruling that Congress “expressly required” EPA to use the appropriated funds for “environmental justice” programs.
“By terminating Plaintiffs on the basis that current EPA leadership no longer want to support ‘environmental justice’ programs, EPA exceeded its authority under the Clean Air Act,” Abelson wrote.
Higashi said the plaintiffs had respectfully requested immediate reinstatement of the funds and were awaiting EPA’s response.
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