While the Trump administration and DOGE is exposing wasteful spending from USAID, attention is shifting to wasteful and partisan spending by other federal agencies. Several agencies gave large grants to recipients in Arizona for partisan, progressive purposes. Some of these were authorized by Congressional bills, however, so will be difficult for Trump’s executive branch to cut.
The Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corporation awarded $35 million in 2023 to the University of Arizona for expanding markets for climate-smart natural rubber from guayule. The subsidies have come under attack from Republicans in Congress. Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA-01) objected to the grant program last year, “[N]o one natural resource concern should be prioritized over others, considering all the benefits and good work these programs presently support.” Producing rubber alone is not economically viable, and “other useful compounds drawn from guayule were either less or showed uneven results,” the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service found.
The EPA awarded over $156 million to the State of Arizona last year for the “Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: Solar for All.” The description said, “The recipient will provide financial and technical assistance to low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from residential-serving distributed solar energy and storage products.”
The EPA awarded over $20 million to the Hopi Utilities Corporation located in Flagstaff last year to “implement greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction programs, policies, projects, and measures identified in a priority climate action plan (PCAP) developed under a climate pollution reduction grans (CPRG) planning grant.”
The Department of Energy awarded over $51 million to Kohler Co. last year to “reduce carbon dioxide equivalent emissions” at the Vikrell Plant in Casa Grande.
In 2023, FEMA under DHS awarded over $11 million to the World Hunger Ecumenical Arizona Task Force Inc. for “serv[ing] noncitizen migrants recently released from DHS custody to temporarily provide shelter, food, transportation, acute medical care, personal hygiene supplies, and labor necessary to manage cases to provide these services.” Another $11 million grant was provided later that year.
The Department of Education awarded over $23 million in 2019 to Northern Arizona University for “Arizona Gear Up 2019-16: The Five E’s of Equity.” According to an article about DEI, the five criteria are encouragement, enlightenment, engagement, education, and everyone.
The EPA awarded over $17 million last year to Canyon State Bus Sales, Inc. for the Clean School Bus Program. It is to “replace existing school buses with clean and zero emission (ZE) school buses.”
The National Science Foundation awarded $15 million to Arizona State University last year for the Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine. The program states that it will advance renewable energy, net carbon emissions, and water security due to “increasingly harsh climate conditions.”
The Department of Energy awarded over $11 million to ASU last year “to accelerate the commercialization of CO2 removal via integrated capture from the atmosphere…”
Despite the fact light rail in Arizona is widely considered a failure, with it encompassing only a small line through parts of Phoenix and overrun by homeless people, the Department of Transportation awarded $529 million to the City of Phoenix in 2021 to expand it. A similar grant of $158 million was given to the city in 2022, and $27 million granted that same year.
The EPA awarded Laveen School District 59 almost $3 million this year to replace its heavy duty vehicles with zero-emission vehicles “to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.”
The NSF awarded ASU over $2.5 million in 2023 for a biological sciences program that investigates “how relationships between urban ecological infrastructure and human-environment interactions shape the structure and function of urban ecosystems. … New research initiatives will include a focus on environmental justice and equity…”
The Arizona Sun Times previously covered USAID grants to Arizona entities, which mostly went to Arizona State University and the University of Arizona for foreign aid, including combating climate change overseas.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
