EPA gives a nearly $20 million grant to a Black college to buy electric bikes for 300 families

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it was giving a private, historically black university in New Orleans a $19.9 million grant, some of which will be used to buy electric bikes for 300 families.

Dillard University will get the $19 million federal grant and the city of New Orleans will get a $50 million federal grant to combat a “climate crisis.”

Marc Scribner, a senior transportation policy analyst with the Reason Foundation, said buying electric bikes for a small number of families was not an appropriate use of federal funding. Scribner said the federal government should be more focused on big-picture solutions.

He said the electric bikes, which range in price from $400 to $1,800, would have an “imperceptible” impact on the climate.

“That’s just bad federal policy design,” Scribner said.

Besides buying the electric bikes, the $19.9 million grant given to Dillard University will be used to expand bike-sharing programs, install electric vehicle chargers and having several building retrofit with solar and energy storage.

New Orleans will spend its $50 million federal grant on installing rooftop solar panels on 41 buildings, expanding its Blue Bikes share fleet, adding seven miles of bike paths and planting 7,500 trees in “underserved” neighborhoods.

“New Orleans, more than any other city, knows the importance of climate resilience. Projects funded through Climate Pollution Reduction and Community Change grant programs will not only strengthen infrastructure to build resilience, but will also cut greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change,” said EPA Regional Administrator Earthea Nance in a statement. “The Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act brings historic amounts of funding to community groups on the frontlines of climate change who are ready to implement solutions to the challenges they face.”