EPA Staffers Demand Biden Release Funds Withheld Over Gaza

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1. Environmental Protection Agency staffers are demanding that the agency end its partnerships with Israel amid the ongoing siege of Gaza.

   Staffers with the EPA and Department of Energy published an open letter Thursday demanding that the EPA end collaboration with Israel on energy and environmental partnerships.

   The agency exchanges information with Israel and cooperates with Israel on workshops, research projects, and sharing research personnel. Projects include cleaning up and redeveloping contaminated military sites and sharing water reuse practices with U.S. officials.

   “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,” says the letter, which was shared with The Intercept in advance of its public release. “We cannot uphold our oath to serve the public interest while remaining quiet about the devastating humanitarian crisis that continues to unfold before us.”

   Time is also running out for the Biden administration to honor its $50 million grant to the Climate Justice Alliance, a nonprofit coalition that had its funding put on pause after it

   The letter demands that the EPA release the group’s federal funds.

   The EPA staffers’ letter comes several weeks after The Intercept reported that the agency had delayed paying out money, earmarked under an Inflation Reduction Act program, after right-wing politicians attacked the Climate Justice Alliance for its stance in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza. (The EPA did not respond to a request for comment.)

   The December 6 deadline to disburse the funds to the Climate Justice Alliance has passed. Now, the group is at risk of losing funding when President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

   “The funds to CJA are critical for building community resilience against climate change threats, particularly in severely capacity-constrained tribal, remote, and rural areas,” the EPA staffers wrote. “Taking away this funding would leave the people living in these communities vulnerable to potentially disastrous climate disturbances.”..(continues: https://theintercept.com/2024/12/19/epa-staffers-biden-palestine-letter-climate/

2. This is dumb

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