House Democrats call on EPA to halt shuttering of environmental justice offices

A band of more than 100 House Democrats are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to halt its plans to shutter offices that help ensure low income and minority communities are not disproportionately saddled with pollution. 

The EPA announced earlier this month it plans to slash a broad suite of rules and determinations that aim to cut pollution or mitigate climate change.

That includes the environmental justice offices dedicated to fighting pollution in underserved and minority communities around the country.

“This action would cause extraordinary and disproportionate harm and constitute a complete dereliction of the EPA’s statutory responsibility to protect human health and the environment,” Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) wrote in a letter signed by 105 of her Democratic colleagues.

“This Administration’s relentless attacks on environmental justice programs demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding and hostility toward their purpose and necessity. ... This is not about special treatment for any one group; it is about fairness and equitable protection — fundamental American principles that have been ignored for too long in communities across the country that continue to bear the brunt of pollution and environmental harm.”

The EPA referred The Hill to its prior press release about ending the programs.

“President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people. Part of this mandate includes the elimination of forced discrimination programs. Under the Trump Administration, EPA is affirming our commitment to serve every American with equal dignity and respect,” Administrator Lee Zeldin said at the time.

Lee pointed to the prevalence of polluting industries in low income and minority communities, creating “sacrifice zones.”

“Low-income, rural, and communities of color have been systematically exposed to hazardous waste, industrial pollution, and toxic emissions—not by accident, but through deliberate and discriminatory policies like redlining, segregation, and the creation of ‘sacrifice zones’ concentrated near polluting industries,” she wrote.

Data consistently shows polluted areas are frequently centered in such communities.

The American Lung Association’s State of the Air report indicated people of color were 2.3 times as likely as white people to live in a county where the air quality standards failed all three metrics evaluated by the group.

“The burden of living with unhealthy air is not shared equally. Although people of color make up 41.6% of the overall population of the U.S., they are 52% of the people living in a county with at least one failing grade. In the counties with the worst air quality that get failing grades for all three measures of air pollution, 63% of the nearly 44 million residents are people of color, compared to 37% who are white,” the group wrote in its 2024 report.

In addition to planning to cut its environmental justice offices, EPA said it is considering rolling back Biden-era regulations that speed coal plant closures, regulations on the neurotoxin mercury coming from power plants and general air pollution limits for deadly soot, among others.

“These actions represent a deliberate effort to dismantle environmental protections, embolden corporate polluters, and deepen environmental racism,” Lee wrote. “Rather than protecting public health, the EPA seems intent on shielding polluters, leaving vulnerable communities exposed to worsening pollution and environmental devastation.” 

— Updated at 1:31 p.m. EDT