Jabaar Edmond has long advocated for better air quality in his Childs Park neighborhood in St. Petersburg, Florida.

For decades, residents of the predominantly Black neighborhood complained of a persistent gasolinelike odor.

“We had an initiative called ‘Smell something, say something,’” said Edmond, former president of the neighborhood’s association. Residents have long sounded that alarm, blaming the noxious odor on a nearby oil recycling facility.

Last year, the city funded the planting of more than 180 trees across the neighborhood. Trees help battle the urban heat island effect and filter pollutants, which can mitigate odors and improve air quality. The project was funded by a federal grant from the U.S. Forest Service.

But now, the agency is hindering such efforts, canceling a grant that supports tree-planting in disadvantaged communities.

Communities across the nation are losing federal funds that helped pay for environmental justice efforts designed to mitigate the health effects of pollution and other hazards on historically underserved communities. President Donald Trump’s administration has targeted those initiatives in its drive to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — programs.

“Where it hurts for us is we still have a huge environmental problem that’s occurring in real time that we’re attempting to mitigate,” Edmond said.

Environmental justice refers to equitable access to healthy environments. Federal housing policies and disinvestment in historically segregated communities have been linked to numerous health consequences. Communities of color have been disproportionately exposed to refineries and other sources of pollution. Air pollution is linked to asthma, cardiovascular problems and lower life expectancy.

Such systematic, disproportionate exposure to industrial pollutants and disinvestment is known as environmental racism. Research shows, for example, that Black Americans living in communities that were redlined — a discriminatory practice under which the federal government and banks systematically denied mortgages to residents of minority neighborhoods — have lower life expectancy and more exposure to air pollution and other hazards. Meanwhile, many tribal communities have been the sites of or near mineral mining and oil and gas development.

The Biden administration awarded grants to help correct those harms, centering environmental justice and climate change across multiple federal agencies. The Justice40 initiative aimed to invest 40% of federal climate, housing, clean energy and clean water benefits in historically underserved communities.

Now, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has canceled more than 400 environmental justice grants totaling $1.7 billion.

Democrats are accusing EPA of illegally canceling the grants, as many were funded through Biden-era congressionally appropriated funds under the Inflation Reduction Act. EPA canceled the grants as part of sweeping cuts to what the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency task force deem unnecessary spending. In recent weeks, Democrats have demanded Zeldin reverse the cancellations.

The Trump administration has also shut down the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice, as well as the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity.

State environmental and health departments, regulatory agencies, city and county governments, elementary schools, nonprofits and tribal communities were among those that received grants.

Read the full article about canceled environmental justice grants by Nada Hassanein at Stateline.