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Some grassroots environmental organizations have regained access to the millions of dollars they were promised through the Inflation Reduction Act. But now some see an even more menacing threat: prosecution. The unease has grown as President Donald Trumps attacks on them and their mission to help disadvantaged communities and curb climate change continues to escalate. Leaders of these groups say they expect federal agents to start breathing down their necks any day now as Trump seeks to shred the climate initiatives of his predecessor, Joe Biden. Its not a matter of if you will be audited, its a matter of when, said Ashley Shelton, executive director of the Louisiana-based nonprofit The Power Coalition for Equity and Justice. The first signs of that happened earlier this month when media reports surfaced that the Trump administration had ordered certain nonprofits receiving funding through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to hand over all their correspondence with EPA staff. According to Politico, they were also ordered to turn over to the FBI documents including transactions related to their programs and their organizations articles of incorporation and policies. On March 11, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced he had cancelled the program. The groups are suing to regain access to the $20 billion in greenhouse gas reduction funding. The federal government alleges the recipients defrauded the government. Zeldin has called Bidens climate program a green slush fund and characterized the Trump administrations actions as an effort to curtail wasteful government spending. Zeldin has charged that the EPA fast-tracked the greenhouse gas funds to avoid oversight during the final days of Bidens term. He has repeatedly referred to a surreptitiously taken video in which an EPA representative in December likened the effort to award those funds before Trump took office as throwing gold bars off the Titanic. Lawsuits pile up; funding in limbo Lawsuits continue to mount against Trumps actions as other pots of IRA funding and federal grants remain on lock down despite court orders barring any freeze on funds that have already been approved by Congress. We know that this current administration has signaled that they may not comply with what the courts or Congress orders them to do, and so that’s going to be a real problem, said Erin Rogers, co-director for the Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice. The Hive Fund specializes in raising funds and awarding grants to nonprofits led by minority women in communities hardest hit by pollution and climate change. Rogers said her group is already working with their recipients to better shield them from the federal audits that could be weaponized against them. We’re absolutely committed to helping groups do what they need to do to stay in compliance with their contracts, and then be in the legal system to make sure that these contracts are complied with by the federal government, she said. The Power Coalition is part of a group that secured a $20 million grant from the EPA to address energy efficiency in a low-income, predominantly Black Baton Rouge neighborhood located in the heavily-industrialized corridor in southwest Louisiana known as Cancer Alley. That project had been in limbo when Trump announced his freeze, but is back on track now that the EPA has freed up some of the IRA money. We’re proceeding with caution because I don’t want to be in a position to get the community excited about an opportunity that we then can’t actually materialize, Shelton said. DEI efforts targeted Shelton knows Trumps war on diversity, equity and inclusion is yet another thing that makes them vulnerable. I mean, the words equity and justice are in our name as an organization, she said. Does it feel like at some point it will make us a target? Sure. Environmental advocacy is only a small portion of what the coalition does. Her organization also advocates and implements outreach services related to health care, criminal justice reform, housing, early education and child care and voting rights. We’re not doing anything wrong, she said. Theres certainly apprehension and some fear (but) we’re gonna move forward and we’re gonna do this work because it is good and necessary work. Sheltons sentiments are shared by Cynthia Robertson, who in 2018 started with a food box in front of her home in Sulphur, Louisiana that grew into a six-employee nonprofit, Micah 6:8 Mission, whose name stems from a biblical exhortation to practice justice, mercy and humility. The group focuses on disaster recovery and environmental justice in the southwest corner of the state. We have 17 permitted [industrial] facilities in that area. We have a very high cancer rate, Robertson said. So we’ve been working at providing food, and at the same time we educate and give [the community] the tools to understand what’s going on and advocate for themselves. Robertson was worried that work might come to a halt when she, like so many others, was locked out of the federal governments online portal to access approximately $200,000 in grants from the EPA for community air monitoring and educational outreach on environmental justice issues. With that funding now available again, Robertson said theres still no word on whether a more than $100,000 grant she secured through the Department of Energy to help draft a community benefits plan for their service area will still come through. Some of the requirements for community benefit plans are to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, according to a fact sheet from the DOEs Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. I just know that there’s been delays and that we have been instructed by the DOE to postpone or suspend our work, she said. [But] we’re still continuing to do the work, because we have this contract we signed, and so the government has broken their side of the contract. The agency did not respond to multiple requests from Floodlight seeking a response to Robertsons claims. I’m not going to hold out any hope that it’s coming through because, along with DEI, the Trump administration has said they’re not going to support anything that deals with community benefits plans, she added. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to do the work. We’re just going to have to scale back the work. Some foundations step in The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation recently announced it would increase its funding to nonprofits by an estimated $150 million over the next two years to help supplant the funding frozen by Trump. In January, billionaire and former Democratic New York City Mayor Michael Bloombergwho is also a special envoy to the United Nations on climate changevowed to help cover the U.S. contribution to the UN climate body after Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement. The presidents move came at a time when other members of the countrys billionaire class were cutting their contributions to environmental issues to fall in line with Trumps agenda. I think people are really looking to see who can we trust, who’s still here with us, said Heather McTeer Toney, executive director of the Bloomberg-funded Beyond Petrochemicals campaign. This idea of being a target, it feels different. It is scary. We are really blessed to work with an organization that has not pulled out, and I think puts us in a position to encourage others to stay and be part of the climate movement. Toney added that most environmental justice groups were fighting and advocating for years without any financial help from the government and would likely revert back to that if need be. But Rogers stressed the need to push against Trumps attempts to claw back IRA funding. Philanthropy likely cannot backfill the gaps in federal funding, she said. The bottom line is this transition to clean, affordable, reliable and resilient energy, especially across the U.S. South where rates are high, energy burden is high, disaster strikes are highthat transition can deliver so many benefits, Rogers said. Not only for historically disinvested communities, but for our economy and our democracy as a whole. Terry L. Jones, Floodlight Floodlight is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action. Beyond Petrochemicals, which is quoted in this story and provided images, is a funder of Floodlight. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which is mentioned in the story, is also a Floodlight funder.
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PepsiCo is sick of being left out of the prebiotic soda crazeand to catch up with competitors, the multinational food and beverage corporation just dropped $1.65 billion to acquire the functional soda startup Poppi. The deal, announced this morning, will bring Poppis range of 14 colorful, low-sugar, prebiotic-packed sodas into Pepsis expansive existing beverage portfolio. The move comes as young consumers are increasingly turning away from traditional soda in favor of more health-conscious, functional beverages, which typically come with a mood or health benefit derived from a specific set of ingredients. Popular prebiotic brands like Poppi and Olipop fit in this category, as do hydration-based drinks like Mio and Magna. While Pepsi already owns Gatoradewhich continues to dominate the hydration market, despite an influx of new entrantsthe corporation has yet to make a move in the prebiotic space. Meanwhile, its main competitor, the Coca-Cola Company, just announced its own prebiotic soda brand called Simply Pop early last month. Now, Pepsi is ensuring that it leaves no functional beverage category unchecked. “As we look to reorient our portfolio offerings to address white space consumer needs, the Poppi brand’s unique intersection with wellness and culture is a perfect addition to our portfolio,” Ram Krishnan, CEO of PepsiCo Beverages U.S, said in a press release on the acquisition. What’s your function? According to data from NielsenIQ, U.S. sales of functional beverages grew 54% to $9.2 billion between March 2020 and March 2024. As of last March, functional beverages accounted for an impressive 10% of the nonalcoholic beverage market. Poppi has been well-positioned to capitalize on this growing interest: In 2024, the brand made more than $500 million in sales. Poppi’s healthy soda premise attracts young consumers, but where the brand really hooks potential drinkers is through its influencer marketing tactics (like its controversial decision to send entire vending machines to TikTokers for the Super Bowl) and an ultra-vibrant, colorful branding approach designed to court Gen Z. Founder Allison Ellsworth says that these efforts have helped to distinguish prebiotic sodas as a new modern soda section on grocery store shelves. Over the last five years, we’ve worked with our buyers and retailers to define this whole new category. It’s what we call the modern soda set, Ellsworth told Forbes in an interview this month. It’s a dash destination within the store for this whole new category. Americas soda-drinking habits are changing, with young consumers leading the wayand Pepsis latest acquisition demonstrates that prebiotic soda might just be the next sparkling water.
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The next time you’re due for a medical exam you may get a call from someone like Ana: a friendly voice that can help you prepare for your appointment and answer any pressing questions you might have.With her calm, warm demeanor, Ana has been trained to put patients at easelike many nurses across the U.S. But unlike them, she is also available to chat 24-7, in multiple languages, from Hindi to Haitian Creole.That’s because Ana isn’t human, but an artificial intelligence program created by Hippocratic AI, one of a number of new companies offering ways to automate time-consuming tasks usually performed by nurses and medical assistants. This March 2025 image from the website of artificial intelligence company Xoltar shows a demonstration of one of their avatars for conducting video calls with patients. [Photo: Xoltar via AP] It’s the most visible sign of AI’s inroads into health care, where hundreds of hospitals are using increasingly sophisticated computer programs to monitor patients’ vital signs, flag emergency situations and trigger step-by-step action plans for carejobs that were all previously handled by nurses and other health professionals.Hospitals say AI is helping their nurses work more efficiently while addressing burnout and understaffing. But nursing unions argue that this poorly understood technology is overriding nurses’ expertise and degrading the quality of care patients receive.“Hospitals have been waiting for the moment when they have something that appears to have enough legitimacy to replace nurses,” said Michelle Mahon of National Nurses United. “The entire ecosystem is designed to automate, de-skill, and ultimately replace caregivers.” This March 2025 image from the website of artificial intelligence company Xoltar, shows two of of their demonstration avatars for conducting video calls with patients. [Photo: Xoltar via AP] Mahon’s group, the largest nursing union in the U.S., has helped organize more than 20 demonstrations at hospitals across the country, pushing for the right to have say in how AI can be usedand protection from discipline if nurses decide to disregard automated advice. The group raised new alarms in January when Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the incoming health secretary, suggested AI nurses “as good as any doctor” could help deliver care in rural areas. On Friday, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who’s been nominated to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, said he believes AI can “liberate doctors and nurses from all the paperwork.”Hippocratic AI initially promoted a rate of $9 an hour for its AI assistants, compared with about $40 an hour for a registered nurse. It has since dropped that language, instead touting its services and seeking to assure customers that they have been carefully tested. The company did not grant requests for an interview.AI in the hospital can generate false alarms and dangerous adviceHospitals have been experimenting for years with technology designed to improve care and streamline costs, including sensors, microphones and motion-sensing cameras. Now that data is being linked with electronic medical records and analyzed in an effort to predict medical problems and direct nurses’ care sometimes before they’ve evaluated the patient themselves. In this photo provided by National Nurses United, nurses hold a rally in San Francisco on April 22, 2024, to highlight safety concerns about using artificial intelligence in healthcare. [Photo: National Nurses United via AP] Adam Hart was working in the emergency room at Dignity Health in Henderson, Nevada, when the hospital’s computer system flagged a newly arrived patient for sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to infection. Under the hospital’s protocol, he was supposed to immediately administer a large dose of IV fluids. But after further examination, Hart determined that he was treating a dialysis patient, or someone with kidney failure. Such patients have to be carefully managed to avoid overloading their kidneys with fluid.Hart raised his concern with the supervising nurse but was told to just follow the standard protocol. Only after a nearby physician intervened did the patient instead begin to receive a slow infusion of IV fluids.“You need to keep your thinking cap onthat’s why you’re being paid as a nurse,” Hart said. “Turning over our thought processes to these devices is reckless and dangerous.”Hart and other nurses say they understand the goal of AI: to make it easier for nurses to monitor multiple patients and quickly respond to problems. But the reality is often a barrage of false alarms, sometimes erroneouly flagging basic bodily functionssuch as a patient having a bowel movementas an emergency.“You’re trying to focus on your work but then you’re getting all these distracting alerts that may or may not mean something,” said Melissa Beebe, a cancer nurse at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. “It’s hard to even tell when it’s accurate and when it’s not because there are so many false alarms.”Can AI help in the hospital?Even the most sophisticated technology will miss signs that nurses routinely pick up on, such as facial expressions and odors, notes Michelle Collins, dean of Loyola University’s College of Nursing. But people aren’t perfect either.“It would be foolish to turn our back on this completely,” Collins said. “We should embrace what it can do to augment our care, but we should also be careful it doesn’t replace the human element.”More than 100,000 nurses left the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to one estimate, the biggest staffing drop in 40 years. As the U.S. population ages and nurses retire, the U.S. government estimates there will be more than 190,000 new openings for nurses every year through 2032.Faced with this trend, hospital administrators see AI filling a vital role: not taking over care, but helping nurses and doctors gather information and communicate with patients.‘Sometimes they are talking to a human and sometimes they’re not’At the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences in Little Rock, staffers need to make hundreds of calls every week to prepare patients for surgery. Nurses confirm information about prescriptions, heart conditions and other issueslike sleep apneathat must be carefully reviewed before anesthesia.The problem: many patients only answer their phones in the evening, usually between dinner and their children’s bedtime.“So what we need to do is find a way to call several hundred people in a 120-minute windowbut I really don’t want to pay my staff overtime to do so,” said Dr. Joseph Sanford, who oversees the center’s health IT.Since January, the hospital has used an AI assistant from Qventus to contact patients and health providers, send and receive medical records and summarize their contents for human staffers. Qventus says 115 hospitals are using its technology, which aims to boost hospital earnings through quicker surgical turnarounds, fewer cancellations and reduced burnout.Each call begins with the program identifying itself as an AI assistant.“We always want to be fully transparent with our patients that sometimes they are talking to a human and sometimes they’re not,” Sanford said.While companies like Qventus are providing an administrative service, other AI developers see a bigger role for their technology.Israeli startup Xoltar specializes in humanlike avatars that conduct video calls with patients. The company is working with the Mayo Clinic on an AI assistant that teaches patients cognitive techniques for managing chronic pain. The company is also developing an avatar to help smokers quit. In early testing, patients spend about 14 minutes talking to the program, which can pickup on facial expressions, body language and other cues, according to Xoltar.Nursing experts who study AI say such programs may work for people who are relatively healthy and proactive about their care. But that’s not most people in the health system.“It’s the very sick who are taking up the bulk of health care in the U.S. and whether or not chatbots are positioned for those folks is something we really have to consider,” said Roschelle Fritz of the University of California Davis School of Nursing. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Matthew Perrone, AP Health Writer
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