A Radically Reshaped EPA Takes Its Toll on Bay Area Environmental Justice Efforts

Weeks of actions at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency meant to tear up regulations, eviscerate its climate research and eliminate any focus on environmental justice have left Bay Area nonprofits reeling and confused.

Federal funding was cut, or at least frozen, for work including planting hundreds of trees, developing local air quality monitoring and bolstering a youth climate collective, but nonprofit leaders in East Palo Alto, West Oakland and South San Francisco have already hired staff to fulfill grants, paid graduate student stipends for research and spent years developing a sweeping range of projects.

“We might have to lay them off,” said Brian Beveridge, co-executive director of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, which hired at least one staff member to help fulfill a grant analyzing local air quality. “There are real impacts for real humans. It’s not just about a bunch of money being thrown around.”