Climate Justice Alliance anti-war stance
Delaying the grant payment, which was first reported by E&E News, could set a broader precedent to withhold funding from organizations working on social justice issues, Chavez said. House Republicans recently passed a bill known as H.R. 9495 that critics say would green-light devastating political attacks on nonprofits.
In a statement last year following the October 7 attacks, the Climate Justice Alliance called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and condemned “genocidal attacks by Israel on the civilian Palestinian population.” The alliance has also called on Congress to stop funding Israel’s military and denounced apartheid in Palestine as a climate justice issue resulting from the effects of war contaminating Palestine’s air, water, and soil.
Biden Makes His Own Attack on Nonprofit Over Palestine. Climate Justice Alliance was the only program grantee to speak out on Palestine — and the only one whose funding is delayed by Akela Lacy, The Intercept, Nov 29, 2024
The Biden administration withheld federal funding last year from the Climate Justice Alliance, a nonprofit climate organization, over its support for Palestine, The Intercept previously reported. That group will not receive funding under Trump, who signaled his plans to launch political attacks on nonprofits and reversed many climate-oriented policies on day one.
By withholding funding promised to the Climate Justice Alliance, the Biden administration paved the way for Trump to more easily hobble those he considers political enemies, such as organizers in Indigenous and poor communities working on issues like climate change, said CJA political director Timmy Châu, who now goes by the name TR Rose.
“The outgoing administration had months to ensure these communities most affected by harm would get this money directly,” Rose said. “And now that administration has paved the way to further the kind of carving away of critical public infrastructure and funds to the communities most impacted.”
Last month, Environmental Protection Agency staffers wrote an open letter demanding that the Biden administration release the funds to CJA and that the agency end its work with Israel.
Biden Attack on Nonprofit Over Palestine Stance Made Trump’s Job Easier. By denying funding to the Climate Justice Alliance over Palestine, Biden went after Trump’s political opponents for him by Akela Lacy, The Intercept, January 22 2025
An Open Letter to EPA, DOE, and the White House: Palestine is an Environmental and Climate Justice Issue
As civil servants, our first official act is taking a solemn oath and pledging to serve the public’s interests. We are EPA and DOE workers who swore to protect the safety, affordability, and long-term security of our nation’s air, water, and energy systems. While our work typically does not engage on foreign policy issues, the ongoing genocide in Gaza has compelled us to speak truthfully on the hypocrisy of protecting human health and the environment within U.S. borders while our government continues to fund and facilitate the destruction of entire communities and ecosystems overseas. We cannot uphold our oath to serve the public interest while remaining quiet about the devastating humanitarian crisis that continues to unfold before us.
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Federal funding to build community resilience to climate change has also been directly impacted by the ongoing genocide. We have been deeply disappointed to witness EPA’s current withholding of $60 million to the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA), the only one of the eleven grantees that courageously spoke out against the environmental toll and human rights violations in Palestine. The funds to CJA are critical for building community resilience against climate change threats, particularly in severely capacity-constrained tribal, remote, and rural areas. Taking away this funding would leave the people living in these communities vulnerable to potentially disastrous climate disturbances. As civil servants, we call upon our agency leadership to remember their oath and acknowledge that environmental justice cannot be selective– we must end our complicity to this devastating environmental and humanitarian crisis.
Palestine is an environmental and climate justice issue
We explicitly name our concerns here around climate change and environmental justice in Gaza and its global ripple effects in solidarity with Palestinian people. We emphasize that the devastating loss of innocent civilian life is inextricably linked to environmental injustice. This human toll has deeply affected us all. As EPA and DOE workers, we condemn the hypocrisy between our agencies’ official positions on climate change, environmental protection, and public health, and their current actions.
Signed,
Federal Environment and Energy Workers for Justice in Palestine
An Open Letter to EPA, DOE, and the White House: Palestine is an Environmental and Climate Justice Issue
The Trump administration said Thursday that it canceled a federal grant to a climate nonprofit over the group’s protected First Amendment speech.
Trump’s EPA Kills Grant to Climate Nonprofit Over Its Support for Palestine. In a tweet announcing his attack on the Climate Justice Alliance, EPA head Lee Zeldin linked it to the group’s protected speech about Palestine by Akela Lacy, The Intercept, February 14 2025
