The White House says it is reviewing the agency plans and is facing a February deadline to provide a status update. But time is running short: Funds from the infrastructure law are already going out the door.

“We need to get assurances that the administration has promised,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance in New York. “We continued to have concerns about the lack of transparency. Our communities have to be more than poster children to an agenda. They need to be literally at the table.”