This article was written by Ogechi Obi, Moms Clean Air Force’s 2024 summer intern.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has delivered historic funding for environmental justice initiatives that support communities overburdened by dangerous air pollution. Millions of dollars have been poured into tackling unhealthy air, specifically through air pollution monitoring, emissions reduction programs, and clean air grants. The IRA celebrates its second anniversary this month, and while its pollution-cutting programs are vast, the Air Quality Monitoring Grant Program in particular deserves to be singled out and highlighted.
This one program has allocated a whopping $53 million across 132 projects to create a more equitable future for our kids and communities. Because of environmental racism and injustice, low-income communities and communities of color are more likely to live near pollution-causing facilities and bear disproportionate health harms. The Air Quality Monitoring Grant Program funding specifically seeks to change this disparity through its focus on environmental justice.
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The Air Quality Monitoring Grant Program could not be more crucial—or timely. The American Lung Association’s annual 2024 State of the Air Report found that 131 million people in the U.S. live in areas with unhealthy pollution levels. In this past year, people in the U.S. experienced more “very unhealthy or hazardous air quality days than any time in the survey’s history.”
One substantial cause of this air pollution is the burning of fossil fuels for energy, which is associated with numerous health impacts, including several forms of cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and adverse birth outcomes. Children are particularly vulnerable to the dangers of air pollution because of their still-developing bodies and behavioral patterns.
Funding from the IRA’s Air Pollution Monitoring Grant Program has helped communities all across the nation. In Aurora, Colorado, the Black Parents United Foundation received nearly $500,000 to install air quality monitors that will collect previously unavailable data about the air pollution in their neighborhood. Air quality monitors are a crucial first step to cleaning up air and protecting the community—especially the kids—from harm.
The group’s founder, Shere Walker-Ravenell, and her neighbors sought the grant after noticing an increase of childhood asthma among their kids. She suspected the uptick was a result of local air pollution—perhaps coming from the rampant oil and gas operations nearby. In an interview with CBS News, she said, “You’re surprised at how many wells are already up here,” referencing nearby fossil fuel extraction.
Several states away in Sacramento, California, United Latinos Promoviendo Acción Cívica received over $400,000 from the IRA’s Air Pollution Monitoring Grant Program to set up a comprehensive air quality monitoring system for students in Sacramento City School District—both in schools and on school bus routes. Parts of Sacramento have some of the worst air quality in the nation, and the funds will also be used to raise awareness about its impacts on under-resourced communities like their own.
The Air Pollution Monitoring Grant Program empowers communities and provides resources to address problems on the ground. It’s only one example of how funding through IRA programs is alleviating health disparities across the country. Due to the magnitude of opportunities the IRA has created, it’s clear that families nationwide will breathe easier and, critically, that this current environmental justice momentum will continue long past the landmark legislation’s two-year anniversary.
Tell Congress: Commit to Climate Investments and Clean Air Progress