EPA employees working on environmental justice take leave: NPR
Most employees working in the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and the Office of External Civil Rights were on administrative holidays Thursday.
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Nearly 170 employees of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR) were taken to paid administrative leave, according to agency officials on anonymity.
Many employees have part-time jobs on holidays, or primarily environmental justice efforts aimed at reducing environmental harm to poor and ethnic minority communities, which historically and currently face disproportionate harm to environmental and climate pollution.
President Trump expressed interest in getting rid of the office altogether, as well as other programs and offices of the federal government with environmental justice. He signed Executive Order exist He began this process on his first day in office.
The affected employees were informed of the decision at a meeting Thursday afternoon and have since received an email reminding them to take administrative leave, effective immediately. Dozens of employees at EPA headquarters and employees at EPA’s 10 regional offices nationwide were affected. NPR reviewed the email and confirmed the report from multiple sources in the office.
The number of staff on leave is large, related to the size of the office, and “During the Biden administration, Oejecr Deputy Chief Executive Matthew Tejada said.
The growing EPA footprint of environmental justice – Grizzly
For many years, EPA's environmental justice work has been in the small office of environmental justice, consisting of dozens of people. That office, With different namesfounded in 1992 by Republican President George HW Bush.
In the following years, environmental justice efforts gained federal support. President Bill Clinton issued a 1994 executive order requiring federal agencies to consider environmental justice in decision-making; efforts continued during the Obama administration. Then, the Biden administration makes environmental justice clearer. It launched the Justice 40 Initiative, aiming to point 40% of federal climate and environmental interests to the most polluted communities in history.
2022, EPA Merge the Office of Environmental Justice with Two Others to Create Oejecr. By 2024, the EPA headquarters and EPA’s staff have increased by more than 200 in 10 regional offices nationwide.
“It's small, but super powerful,” said Sacoby Wilson, an environmental justice expert at the University of Maryland. “People are super invested and they promise because they are part of the movement. It's bigger than themselves,” said Sacoby Wilson. .”
The office now oversees and manages $3 billion in grants and loans related to climate and environmental justice, mainly funded through the country’s first major climate policy, the Inflation Reduction Act. Funded projects address various environmental and climate risks.
“Communities ask money to take their churches, schools, libraries and turn them into a center where communities can shelter and receive medical services and get communications and get battery storage power,” Tejada said. “Tribes require solar arrays to be rural communities.” Provides power and makes them a little resilient and reduces energy prices.”
The office has approved and signed contracts for hundreds of community-led projects, with as much as 80% going to fund office programs. Zealan Hoovera former senior consultant to former EPA administrator. However, the future of these projects is unclear after the Trump administration Federal grant funds and other programs were frozen in late January.
“The obligation to provide a grantee with good credibility to obtain his funds is clear,” Hoover said.
NPR has commented with the EPA and the Trump administration. Neither response was made.