Tribes, minorities ask panel for fair chance at green grants

October 16, 2020

Tribal officials on the front lines of fighting the effects of climate change told a House Natural Resources subcommittee yesterday that they rarely get federal help because they are forced to compete for grants against wealthier states.

"A tribal nation of 500 people, no matter the financial resources, will find it difficult to compete against a government body — county or state — with anywhere from a few thousand to millions of citizens and an active tax base," said Fawn Sharp, president of the Quinault Indian Nation and the National Congress of American Indians in Washington state.

Testifying before the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife, Sharp suggested a possible fix: removing matching requirements that often make it impossible for tribes to get green grants from the U.S. government.

Tribes and minority groups alike registered similar complaints, saying they often lose out on green grants for different reasons.

"More equitable funding programs are needed — the communities who are impacted most by climate change should be prioritized in funding," said Na'Taki Osborne Jelks, an assistant professor in the Environmental and Health Sciences Program at Spelman College and leader of the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, an environmental justice organization.

She proposed making more grassroots organizations eligible for larger multiyear grants: "We can't fix systemic problems with an incremental approach supported by a one-year, nonrenewable small grant."

In Puerto Rico, officials say they need more federal help to fight beach erosion and restore coral reefs, particularly after Hurricane Maria hit the island in 2017, but they've basically given up on pursuing grants.

"These federal funding opportunities are seldom pursued by island jurisdictions, among other reasons, because of matching requirements or lack of capacity to develop specific components of federal grants," said Ernesto Díaz-Velázquez, a marine scientist and director of the Puerto Rico Coastal Management Program and the Puerto Rico Coral Reef Conservation and Management Program.

"Under normal circumstances, matching requirements typically range from a 1-to-1 to 65%-35% or 75%-25% ratios."

Holly Bamford, chief conservation officer of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, told lawmakers that demand for grants has grown in recent years as coastal issues have become more urgent.

As an example, she said, applications for the National Coastal Resilience Fund have doubled in three years, and the program has funded only 25% of the proposals it has received. The foundation is a nonprofit organization created by Congress in 1984 that now ranks as the nation's largest private conservation grant maker.

Offering a contrary view, Donna Jackson, a member of the National Advisory Council for Project 21, a Black conservation organization, told the panel that environmental laws and regulations can raise water and electricity bills, hitting minority communities the hardest. And she said that Democratic proposals such as the Green New Deal would only worsen the situation.

"If the purpose of these grants is to pursue policies that serve to raise the cost of living on those who can least afford it, or to stifle the creation of good-paying jobs for those who most need them, then minority communities are better off without the money," she said. "The only winners seem to be environmental activists, bureaucrats and lawyers — not the communities these people claim to serve."

'We need to do more'

Subcommittee Chairman Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said he wanted the panel to examine racial inequities in federal grant programs and the effect on coastal communities as part of the nation's "reckoning on race," prompted by a summer of protests that followed the police killings of several Black Americans, including George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Huffman cited the federal response to Superstorm Sandy as an example, noting how wealthier neighborhoods received priority treatment after the storm slammed the Atlantic coast in 2012 while low-income neighborhoods had to wait. And he said changes are needed as the effects of climate change worsen, striking minority communities the hardest.

"We know we need to do more," he said.

The federal programs have had strong bipartisan support in Congress.

Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) said the programs are "investments" that are particularly needed in his state, which has been battered by hurricanes and suffered major damage of its coastline.

"It's not pork; it's investment, and it pays off," he said.

Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) told his colleagues the issue will be part of the panel's upcoming legislative portfolio.

"If the communities that need the assistance the most aren't eligible or can't come compete for funding, that's a problem we absolutely need to address," he said.


By:  Rob Hotakainen
Source: E&E News