"E.P.A. Will Make Racial Equality a Bigger Factor in Environmental Rules"

"The agency is creating an office of environmental justice to address the disproportionate harm that climate change has caused in low-income areas and communities of color."

"WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency will establish a new national office of environmental justice, the Biden administration’s latest effort to rectify the disproportionate harm caused by pollution and climate change in communities of color and in low-income cities, towns and counties.

Michael S. Regan, the E.P.A. administrator and the first Black man to run the agency, announced the creation of the office alongside environmental justice and civil rights leaders on Saturday in Warren County, N.C., the site of a toxic dump where protesters were arrested 40 years ago, giving rise to the environmental justice movement.

“From day one, the president and E.P.A. have been committed to not just making progress on environmental justice and civil rights, but to ensure that environmental justice and civil rights are at the center of everything we do, that we enshrine it in a way that outlasts any of us,” Mr. Regan said in a telephone interview on Friday."

Coral Davenport reports for the New York Times September 24, 2022.

SEE ALSO:

"EPA Unveils New Office To Place Environmental Justice At Agency’s Core" (Washington Post)

"U.S. EPA Launches Environmental Justice Office" (Reuters)

"EPA Launches New Office Dedicated To Environmental Justice" (CNN)

Source: New York Times, 09/26/2022