FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 7, 2025
Contact: Ashley Sullivan, ashley.sullivan@weact.org
WASHINGTON – In an ongoing effort to undo decades of fundamental environmental justice and civil rights protections and work, the Trump administration forced the leave of hundreds of federal employees in the Environmental Protection Agency this week. The targeted office, the EPA Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR), provides “technical assistance on civil rights and environmental justice, engages with communities with environmental justice concerns, and provides support for community-led action.” It also enforces civil rights laws to prevent discrimination across race, ethnicity, gender, disability, age, or other identities so that all people are able to access EPA support to protect our universal human rights to clean air, water, and land. This work embedded within the EPA acts to protect communities from the disproportionate health impacts from outsized environmental hazards including overwhelming amounts of air pollution and other harms that communities of color have unfairly lived with for generations. It also works to ensure that all people can live, work, grow and thrive in healthy, resilient, sustainable environments. In response, Leslie Fields, Chief Federal Officer at WE ACT for Environmental Justice shares,
“Yesterday, I stood in front of the Environmental Protection Agency with Congressional members, organizations, and concerned members of the public who are deeply outraged by the unveiled discrimination and disregard for the people of the U.S. by Trump through his targeting of the EPA and environmental justice. The actions being taken by the current administration to dismantle everything associated with environmental justice in the federal government are misguided, illegal, morally reprehensible, dangerous, and a clear violation of the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. These efforts attempt to remove the important work of the EPA Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR), Office of Energy Justice and Equity at DOE and Office of Environmental Justice at DOJ. You cannot be misled by an administration that is justifying these malicious actions, actions that will hurt every person across the U.S. – especially people of color and low-income – to benefit big polluters who can reap even more profits from removing vital environmental and public health protections.
“Holding back funds and gutting this office will have devastating consequences for people across the country, especially those most violently harmed by extreme heat, growing natural disasters, and legacy pollution. Illegally withholding funds and removing these offices also limits access to clean, affordable energy and the growth of the clean energy economy, including potential benefits such as jobs, and cost savings. The work of the EPA to deliver on environmental justice programs and funding is more important than ever, making sure we’re stopping legacy pollution in our neighborhoods from power plants, while also paving the way for a clean and healthy future with programs like Solar for All, clean electric school buses – an American industry – and community change grants.
“As I said yesterday, despite this, we will prevail and we stand with these federal employees. Environmental justice is the antidote to environmental racism. Environmental racism is real, it is making our communities sick and die prematurely, and it has to be addressed. it’s not giving anyone an unfair advantage but rather helping those who need it most, who have been denied fair treatment for decades. Tearing apart these essential departments is further evidence of the Trump administration centering environmental racism as part of their agenda. Environmental justice started in our communities, not the federal government, and we will continue to make sure that it is achieved at all levels regardless of the discriminatory targeting by the current administration.”
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WE ACT for Environmental Justice is a Northern Manhattan-based, membership-driven organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low-income residents are meaningfully included in the development of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Visit us at weact.org and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, Twitter/X, and Instagram.