US president Joe Biden’s administration announced on Thursday it will select 11 organisations across the United States to administer $550 million in grants to disadvantaged communities for reducing legacy pollution and gaining access to clean energy.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will fund organisations, which could include large non-profit groups, tribal nations and universities, that will serve as grantmakers for its new Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking program that will invest in community-led projects in areas that have been historically overburdened by air and water pollution.

The money is part of $3 billion included for environmental justice block grants authorized by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Biden administration’s signature legislation that will drive investment of nearly $369 billion in clean energy and climate priorities.

“The money that we have been entrusted with is more than triage. It is more than fixing a small problem. The scale and the vision of this investment that Congress has given us will change these communities,” Robin Morris Collin, senior advisor for environmental justice at the EPA, told Reuters in an interview.

Last September, the EPA launched a new office focused on the needs of low-income and minority communities that have been overburdened by pollution. It will oversee the deployment of