"The EPA’s slashing of more than $1 billion in grant funding has hit hard in Western communities that have felt climate impacts from flooding, wildfire smoke and melting permafrost."
"When wildfire smoke drifts into the Methow Valley, it tends to stay, settling in the folds of the Cascade foothills like a choking fog. Recent summers have brought weeks-long binges of unhealthy air to one of Washington state’s poorest counties, rivaling some of the most polluted cities in the world.
Countering this intensifying threat are small nonprofit organizations such as the Methow Valley Citizens Council, which has been distributing air purifiers, maintaining a network of air quality monitors, and spreading the message about how to keep safe when the smoke rolls in. Much of that work was funded by a three-year, $440,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, which got cut off last week amid the agency’s push to slash spending.
“We’re basically abandoning people who need it most,” said Jasmine Minbashian, the organization’s executive director.
The EPA’s decision to slash more than $1.5 billion in funding that Administrator Lee Zeldin characterized as “DEI and Environmental Justice grants” has hit hard in many rural communities in the West that have firsthand experience with the destructive realities of the warming climate. The cuts landed in Alaska villages reeling from melting permafrost and coastal flooding; Native American reservations suffering from smoke and long-running drought; and mountain towns in the Pacific Northwest surrounded by burning forests."
Joshua Partlow and Amudalat Ajasa report for the Washington Post April 3, 2025.
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