More Environmental Justice Grants In FY 2011, 2012

The Obama Administration continues pouring huge sums of taxpayer dollars into a program that seeks to help poor, minority and indigenous communities attain “environmental justice” with some of the cash going to groups that assist illegal immigrants.

It’s all part of the president’s multi-billion-dollar initiative to bring “social equity” to long underserved populations throughout the U.S. Just a few months ago the administration proudly announced that three federal agencies (Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of Transportation (DOT) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had contributed to the cause by doling out more than $2.5 billion in “assistance” to help low-income communities with everything from affordable housing to transportation and environmental improvements.

The EPA leads the way with its costly crusade to help underserved populations obtain the same degree of protection from health and environmental hazards as their wealthy counterparts. Here’s how it works; the EPA gives money to leftwing groups—including some dedicated to helping illegal immigrants—that teach black, Latino and indigenous folks how to recycle, reduce carbon emissions through “weatherization” and participate in “green jobs” training.

In the last year the EPA has distributed north of $10 million for environmental justice causes and this month the agency announced that it will allocate an additional $1 million to the initiative with another $1 million to be awarded in 2012. Among the groups getting money is a New Jersey nonprofit that will “educate and train” migrant farm workers from Mexico and Guatemala about “pesticide exposure” risks.

In the past year the EPA grants have gone to similarly outrageous causes, like a $7 million study on how pollution, stress and social factors affect “poor and underserved communities” and  $6.2 million to train low-income residents for “green jobs” in Atlanta. Environmental justice grants have also gone to a migrant farm workers’ group in Missouri that taught migrants about the dangers of sun and heat exposure and to help the poor “evaluate toys and find out about toy recalls.”

Other community groups have used Uncle Sam’s check to teach residents of public housing about recycling, senior citizens about reducing their “carbon footprint,” inner city residents about “climate-change readiness” and students at a middle school with a “disparate economic and racial/ethnic composition” how to “identify and mitigate air pollution and solid waste disposal issues.”