The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, will award $100 million worth of grant money to help communities impacted by climate change and other environmental inequities.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced the grants on a press call Tuesday and said the funding is coming from combination of annual appropriations and the Inflation Reduction Act passed last year.

"For decades, too many communities, particularly low income communities and communities of color have borne the burden of climate and environmental pollution. We also know that too many of these communities have faced barrier after barrier trying to access the federal funds they need and deserve," he said. 

Regan said that’s why the new grant program will focus on giving funds to organizations already working on pollution issues in their own communities. 

The administrator said the money will doled out from the agency's newly created Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil rights launched last year, and funding is available through two programs. 

The first has $30 million earmarked for local, nonprofits, with some money reserved for organizations that have five or fewer employees. The second program sets aside some $70 million that tribal, municipal and other local governmental entities  working alongside nonprofits can apply for. Applicants must submit proposals by April to be considered.

Regan announced the funding alongside Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, southern Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva and Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice Founding Director Catherine Coleman Flowers.