Employees in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR) and regional environmental justice divisions were notified last night that they will be laid off or reorganized effective July 31, in a move that will all but ensure the most polluted communities remain disproportionately harmed, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
Below is a statement by Chitra Kumar, the managing director of the Climate and Energy Program at UCS and a former official with EPA’s OEJECR.
“The layoff notice sent to employees claimed their dismissal would ‘better advance the Agency’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment,’ which is the height of hypocrisy given that these staffers are working to reduce pollution and toxins in the communities suffering the most harm. Scientific data shows that, due to historic and ongoing injustices, communities overburdened by polluting industries, smog-forming traffic, and contaminated waterways and soil are predominantly low-income, Black, Brown and Indigenous. Exposure to consistently higher levels of pollution increases the risk of asthma, heart and lung ailments, cancer and even death.
“Yet Zeldin and the Trump administration continue to focus on propping up the profits of coal, oil and gas companies and other big polluters who take advantage of every loophole available at the expense of public health. This is about all of us, our children, and grandchildren.
“If Administrator Zeldin goes forward with this destructive move, he will be responsible for ending decades of work intended to help set right the harmful legacy of pollution in overburdened communities in a handout to big polluters. This is also part of the Trump administration’s larger ongoing strategy to dismantle EPA and its core functions and undermine its very mission, which is to help keep all people in America safe. In the time ahead, Zeldin is expected to launch a repeal, or ‘no enforce’ order, for a host of science-backed environmental regulations and engage in a wholesale ‘reorganization’ of the agency, including gutting the Research and Development Office that produces science undergirding EPA decisions.
“Happy Earth Day, from the Trump administration.”