The Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., on April 12, 2023. Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg
Feb. 6, 2025, 8:12 AM PST; Updated: Feb. 6, 2025, 2:38 PM PST
Stephen Lee
The EPA on Thursday put 168 employees within its environmental justice office on administrative leave as the Trump administration executes presidential actions to roll back diversity initiatives.
The affected staffers’ functions “did not relate to the agency’s statutory duties or grant work,” an Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman said.
The agency “is in the process of evaluating new structure and organization to ensure we are meeting our mission of protecting human health and the environment for all Americans,” the spokeswoman said.
The move to dismantle the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights is consistent with an executive order President Donald Trump signed on his first day, directing the government to terminate diversity and environmental justice offices and positions.
Under former President Joe Biden, the OEJECR was a bustling department that housed a conflict prevention and resolution center, an office of resource management, a community support branch, an office of policy and program development, and a section dedicated to external civil rights compliance.
Biden’s environmental justice effort sought to prioritize considerations of disadvantaged communities that long suffered from pollution.
That level of activity reflected Biden’s emphasis throughout the federal government. He signed an executive order early in his presidency that steered record levels of funding toward disadvantaged communities and set a goal for 40% of the benefits of federal investments to go toward environmental justice neighborhoods.
The Biden White House also created several government-wide working groups staffed with veteran environmental justice experts from across the country who vigorously enforced environmental laws in communities.
Similarly, the Department of Justice is rolling back Biden-era environmental justice enforcement policies, according to a Wednesday memo reviewed by Bloomberg Law.
The memo gives US Attorneys’ offices until Friday to rescind any memoranda, guidance, and other directives connected to a 2022 letter on environmental justice by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland. The Garland memo laid the groundwork for a comprehensive environmental justice strategy and established DOJ’s first-ever environmental justice section.
“Going forward, the Department will evenhandedly enforce all federal civil and criminal laws, including environmental laws,” said the memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi.
With the EPA’s EJ office now essentially closed, advocates will likely pivot to efforts at the local and state levels. Many states, like New York, California, and Washington, still have programs that focus on those communities, make grants, and convene working groups.
Advocacy groups and individual activists are also highly organized, having spent decades painstakingly building alliances because the federal government was offering little or no help.
“Protecting our air and water and holding deadly polluters accountable helps American families,” Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous said in a statement Thursday. “By shuttering these offices, Donald Trump has decided that we do not deserve clean air or water, and our right to a livable and safe planet comes second to further enriching his fossil fuel friends and donors. Trump has been on the job for less than a month, but every single day he is making our communities less safe.”
“The Trump administration’s chaotic attack on EPA and the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights will expose Americans across the country to more deadly pollution,” Jen Duggan, Executive Director of the Environmental Integrity Project, said in a statement Thursday.
The Sierra Club has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.