By Kelsey Brugger
House Speaker Mike Johnson urged EPA late last year to award a city in his district a grant focused on the environment and disadvantaged communities — funding from the Democrats’ climate law that Republicans have vowed to gut.
The Louisiana Republican, who was just reelected speaker despite pushback from his conservative flank, sent the letter to EPA on Nov. 15, 2024. In that letter, he supported an application from the city of Minden and Louisiana Tech University.
“I understand the funds will be used to support their ‘Empowering Communities with Innovative Solutions to Reduce Pollution, Build Climate Resilience and Improve Public Health Project,’” he wrote, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News via a person who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge the information.
In his letter, Johnson continued that the project “is designed to focus on water quality and sustainability … specifically targeting underserved communities in north Louisiana.”
“The three-year initiative will test cutting-edge water treatment processes to monitor and reduce pollutants in drinking water and wastewater that will benefit the people of this community,” he wrote.
Johnson concludes by asking for a report of EPA’s final decision.
The exact amount of the grant request was not immediately available.
The letter — sent a week after the November election in which Republicans promised to undo Democrats’ major legislative victories — comes as the GOP and President-elect Donald Trump vow to repeal the climate law known as the Inflation Reduction Act.
It also comes as Johnson will have to contend with warring factions in his conference who are at odds over exactly how much of the IRA subsidies and grants to strike through the budget reconciliation process to pay for extending the 2017 tax cuts, which expire at the end of the year.
The IRA, worth hundreds of billions of dollars for clean energy incentives, contains $2 billion in environmental justice grants designed to curb pollution in neighborhoods throughout the country. So far, $1.6 billion in grants have been awarded — but not necessarily obligated — to 105 organizations.
According to EPA’s website, the Minden application has not yet been selected. The EPA press office said the agency received more than 1,700 applicants just before the November deadline and continues to review them; more announcements could be made in the spring.
‘The problems are real’
Environmentalists, who have prodded the Republican leadership on environmental and climate questions for years, were delighted to hear Johnson apparently sees the value in the climate law programs.
“The IRA was written because the problems are real,” said Earthjustice attorney Raul Garcia. “And I can only hope he sees the value in it now, and that he would be so kind to ensure that people outside of his district across the entire country benefit from the investments in the IRA — so as to not roll them back with congressional action.”
