Oh Well!! Shitstain's Funding Tantrums Mean An End To Trying To Replace New Orleans' Tree Cover Wrecked By Katrina
Former president Joe Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, earmarked $1.5 billion for urban and community-based forestry initiatives across the nation, an amount the U.S. Forest Service called a “historic level of investment.” The money was directed to hundreds of nonprofits, schools, and city and state governments. A large share of the funding is now in doubt. The IRA had budgeted $3.5 million to support a sharp rise in SOUL’s city-wide planting efforts, amounting to 80 percent of the group’s budget over the next five years. SOUL had been ramping up operations when Trump’s orders ground everything to a halt.
SOUL was adding staff, increasing the number of volunteer planting events, and had set a goal of nearly doubling its output to about 3,000 trees per year. The IRA funding was passing to SOUL via the Arbor Day Foundation, which allocated $1 million, and the New Orleans Office of Resilience and Sustainability, which planned to give SOUL $2.5 million to help the city meet climate action goals that rely heavily on trees and other carbon offsets to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Federal judges have in recent days ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze the IRA and other federal funding. But the administration is digging in, refusing to release the pent-up funds and triggering what many legal experts are calling a constitutional crisis. Trump has derided the IRA, which was approved by Congress in late 2022, as a “green new scam” that the country can ill afford. His decision to put an immediate hold on disbursements has thrown many nonprofits into crisis. Some groups are worried about having to lay off staff, cancel contracts, delay projects, or close down entirely.
Burley had to nix a $20,000 order with a North Shore tree farm and contract with a delivery company. She also had to take back a job offer and put a hold on a new position she planned to advertise in the coming weeks. SOUL’s four remaining staff jobs are on shaky ground. “It took me eight years to build the team we have, and they’re impeccable at what they do,” Burley said. “If I lost them because I had to put them on furlough, I can’t start over. I’m too old, too tired. I don’t have the energy or the flexibility in my life to rebuild SOUL.”
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https://grist.org/cities/trump-stops-tree-replacement-new-orleans/