U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ), U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8), and Hudson County Executive Craig Guy are blasting President Donald Trump (R) for defunding their $1 million “Clean Hudson” initiative.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Hudson County was taking on pollution at a local level while making communities cleaner and safer for future generations,” Kim said in a statement.
“For Donald Trump and DOGE to say this was wasteful spending that needed to be cut is absurd. Taking away their Clean Hudson project isn’t helping the government ‘cut waste’ – It’s only making the lives of Hudson County families actively worse.”
Guy and Menendez announced the program in December, touting a $1 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, via an Environmental Justice Government-to-Government (EJG2G) grant program, as HCV first reported.
“This decision to terminate the County’s Clean Hudson initiative will impede our efforts to reduce water pollution in Hudson County,” Guy added.
“Make no mistake – this is a direct attack on the health and well-being of our most vulnerable communities. As County Executive, I will continue to fight for my community every day. I urge the Trump Administration to rescind this decision.”
In 2009, the EPA awarded funding under the State Environmental Justice Cooperative Agreement program, now known as the Environmental Justice Government to Government program, which was reopened in 2020.
In 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act created the Environmental and Climate Justice block grant program and provided $2.8 billion in grant funding for the program, which supports the EJG2G program. Hudson County was awarded the grant September 2024.
“We took an all-hands-on-deck approach to protecting our environment and building a green economy in Hudson County. And I am deeply disappointed that the Trump Administration has chosen to stand in our way,” expressed Menendez.
“This grant would’ve promoted clean water and improved public health throughout Hudson County, something that we should all be supportive of. But this won’t stop us. We will continue to partner together to ensure that we invest in the resources needed for every resident to have clean water and a healthy environment.”
As a result, the Hudson County Division of Planning’s Clean Hudson will not be able to provide the environmental educational support we promised, including greenway educational signage, outreach events, and environmental educational materials provided in multiple languages.
They have had to cancel programming they scheduled for this upcoming season, disappointing many residents who had already signed up.
They estimate 1,500 residents this year will no longer be able to participate in their programming (eco-cruises, fishing clinics, and clean up events).
Without this funding their capacity is significantly limited and they will no longer be able to achieve their priorities of expanding programing to many first-time participants or offering programing in languages other than English.
The Hudson County Improvement Authority will significantly scale down their litter education campaign.
They will no longer be able to include the rain garden pilot program or the storm drain design component. Their educational advertising campaign will be significantly smaller than originally designed, which will limit the success of the overall liter education campaign.
Additionally, Hudson County Community College will likely pause the green infrastructure workforce development program indefinitely. This training would have enabled roughly 90 Hudson County residents to enter the green economy over the grant period.
“To say I’m disappointed doesn’t even come close. As bad as it is having the administration kill the grant, much worse is the major disappointment for more than 1,500 county residents,” Hackensack Riverkeeper Captain Bill Sheehan added.
“That’s the number of people – from school kids to seniors – who would have received quality environmental education programming from us this year alone.”
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What if all of our state and local politicians agreed to re-deploy just a fraction of the campaign contributions they receive today toward “green intitiatives?” We are all being asked (yes, unfairly, and the President is reckless/vindictive) to do things differently, spend less etc. What if political campaigns were asked to do the same thing? The Harris/Walz campaign spent over a billion dollars in 100 days. Musk spent $25 million on a judicial election. The political class, and their patrons, are out of control — and we appear no better off as a result… We spend on the wrong things…..
The president being attacked by the son of a man convicted for taking foreign bribes is just so ironic.