⚖️ Court battles loom as Trump's environmental justice reversal begins
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Trump officials are moving fast to halt Biden-era programs on environmental justice — that is, addressing higher pollution burdens that poor people and communities of color often face.
Why it matters: EJ was a priority for Biden's team, which crafted policies like "Justice40" to steer 40% of certain climate and environmental funds to disadvantaged communities.
- But Trump deputies call it part of DEI, inappropriate racially based policymaking, or both.
Driving the news: EPA is placing 168 workers from EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights on leave, said Molly Vaseliou, an EPA spokeswoman.
- She cited President Trump's executive order to end "radical and wasteful" DEI programs and "preferencing," and other memos.
- People placed on leave don't have "statutory duties or core mission functions," she said.
Separately, new AG Pam Bondi is ordering Justice Department divisions to ID and end environmental justice programs.
- It's part of a wider memo, titled "ending internal discriminatory practices," also targeting DEI efforts within the department.
- And the NYT reports that workers at DOE's office of energy equity were placed on leave last month.
The other side: Environmental groups bashed the moves.
- The EJ reversal is "in line with this administration's reckless strategy to tear down our basic health protections and make it easier for polluters to profit," Margot Brown, the Environmental Defense Fund's senior VP for justice and equity, said in a statement.
Catch up quick: While it got more focus under Biden, EJ work has been around for many decades from the grassroots to the federal level.
- For instance, President George H.W. Bush created an equity office at EPA in 1992, and President Clinton issued an EJ executive order in 1994.
What we're watching: The courts.
- Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said the group will sue EPA because EJ is an "express part of its mission."
