The EPA  will disburse $550 million meant to boost efforts to address environmental inequities, the agency announced Thursday. The funds will be distributed among 11 entities, including large non-profits, tribal nations, and universities, that will in turn serve as grantmakers. The Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking is part of the Biden administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which seeks to ensure 40% of the benefits of federal climate investments go to historically excluded, pollution-overburdened communities. The grants are funded by $3 billion authorized for environmental justice block grants in the Inflation Reduction Act, and are meant to help groups and projects in historically excluded communities avoid the resource-intense federal grantmaking process. (Reuters, The Hill)