National Aeronautics and Space Administration Archives

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has shelled out millions in awards to advance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as well as “environmental justice,” despite recently laying off staff and shuttering space programs due to budgetary shortfalls.

NASA has allocated roughly $10 million to pay out dozens of grants and contracts aimed at advancing some element of environmental justice or DEI since 2020, federal spending records show. The agency is multiple billions of dollars short of the funding required to complete its current missions, has fired hundreds of people working on its Mars missions over budgetary concerns and may not have enough funding to maintain a multibillion-dollar space telescope, according to multiple Washington Post reports.

“The environmental justice movement focuses on ensuring communities receive equitable protection from natural and human-induced environmental hazards,” NASA’s webpage on equity and environmental justice reads. “It embodies the principle that all communities should be heard and represented in decision making.”

Much of NASA’s grant spending went to universities to help them study environmental justice in urban areas as well as other places with high concentrations of racial minorities. For instance, the agency approved $150,000 in funding to Columbia University so it could pair “earth observations and socioeconomic data” and enable students to do environmental justice work in New York City, records show.

Another grant, this time worth $250,000, was paid out to Los Angeles as part of NASA’s Predictive Environmental Analytics and Community Engagement for Equity and Environmental Justice (PEACE) program, per federal records. To remedy its observation that “people of color often face higher exposure to air pollutants,” NASA’s PEACE program paid the city to provide pollution data to its residents in “a way that works across communities and cultural differences and specifically analyzes, engages and responds to needs for environmental justice.”

NASA has set aside over $5 million for environmental justice grants like these since 2022, according to federal records.

As NASA paid out millions to fund environmental justice initiatives, the agency in February fired about 530 people, plus an additional 40 contractors, or 8% of its workforce, working at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Post reported. Many of the workers let go were involved in the agency’s Mars Sample Return program, which was studying possible evidence of past life on the red planet.

While short on funds for Mars research and a major space telescope, NASA shelled out millions on embedding DEI both within its own organizational structure and in the broader scientific community, records show.

In 2023, for instance, NASA approved a contract worth roughly $2.9 million to a consulting firm to “incorporate and deeply engrain” DEI in the “culture” of its Science Mission Directorate, according to spending records. NASA allocated another $900,000 in 2020 for the National Academy of Sciences to help it increase diversity among the leaders of space missions.

NASA also gave the Southeastern Universities Research Association thousands of dollars to make the agency’s heliophysics material “more relevant and open to the Latinx and Native American communities,” records show. The agency paid tens of thousands of additional dollars to The Oceanography Society to embed DEI in ocean sciences.

The language used by NASA to describe its environmental justice programs mirrors that used by the Biden-Harris administration’s Justice40 initiative, which dictates that 40% of the beneficiaries of federal climate and environmental programs must be from “underserved communities.” The White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council later defined “underserved communities” as those that are “majority minority.” NASA’s work is also covered by the Justice40 initiative, according to government documents.

NASA did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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Reminiscent of the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars Obama dispersed to failed green energy ventures, a struggling solar energy company that received millions from the Biden administration is about to fold. The northern California firm is called SunPower and it is dedicated to energy storage and solar power. Last summer the Department of Energy (DOE) gave it a $6.7 million grant and earlier this year it received a $1.4 million contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This week SunPower shares are down sharply following a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing warning of “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue operating.

Public funds poured into its coffers as part of an aggressive—and costly—plan to make America green. It began when Biden was vice president and, though the Trump administration halted funding such dubious projects, the money resumed flowing under Biden despite documented failures that have fleeced the American public out of huge sums. They include bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, among the most marked failures in the Obama-Biden administration’s effort to force costly alternative energy on consumers. The northern California company received an outlandish $529 million from the government despite the “serious concerns” of U.S. Treasury officials about the risky investment. The controversial deal was suspiciously rushed through for a politically connected entrepreneur that raised large amounts for Obama’s campaign. Judicial Watch investigated the Solyndra scandal and sued both the Obama and Biden administrations for records involving the costly back door deals that led to the loss of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

A number of other green energy endeavors also failed to take off after receiving hefty investments from Uncle Sam. Among them is Fisker Automotive, a southern California startup that went under after getting nearly $200 million of the $528.7 million that the Obama-Biden administration promised it. The electric car company assured that thousands of jobs would be created in the region hit hard by unemployment and touted innovative plans to develop two lines of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that could go up to 300 miles on a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery. When the government’s multi-million-dollar allocation was announced Biden, then vice president, put the company on a pedestal, saying “the story of Fisker is a story of ingenuity of an American company, a commitment to innovation by the U.S. government and the perseverance of the American auto industry.” Obama Energy Secretary Steven Chu guaranteed Fisker would “save hundreds of millions of gallons of gasoline and offset millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions…” It never materialized.

Another green business that went under after receiving generous government funding under the Obama-Biden administration is ECOtality, another California company that was supposed to make charging stations for electric cars. After getting nearly $100 million from Uncle Sam, it collapsed. A startup called Vehicle Production Group (VPG) went bankrupt after losing $50 million in taxpayer funds awarded under Obama-Biden. VPG was supposed to create special vans for the disabled that run on compressed natural gas. Here is how the Obama administration justified funding the experiment with public dollars: “This project invests in a socially and environmentally responsible product that will create new jobs, promote the use of alternative fuels, and help the U.S. maintain its competitive edge in the automotive industry.” The DOE eventually took the page down, but the wording is straight from the agency’s announcement promoting VPG. Another scandal-plagued green auto program known as Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) received tens of millions of dollars under Obama-Biden with no results.

The Obama administration also launched a multi-million-dollar program to create “green jobs” that will never exist. Back in 2013 a federal audit revealed that the government has blown half a billion dollars to train workers for the fantasy positions to fulfill Obama’s promise of creating 5 million green jobs over the next decade, which predictably has not materialized.

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Another Green Energy Co. Failing after Getting Millions from U.S. Government