EPA slashes key staff fighting pollution in low-income communities
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is firing hundreds of staffers who worked to protect overpolluted, underserved neighborhoods, effectively gutting its environmental justice efforts.
In short:
- The EPA is laying off 280 environmental justice staffers and reassigning another 175, a move critics say targets communities that suffer the most from pollution.
- The agency says the cuts are part of dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in line with Trump administration goals to shrink government.
- Black, low-income, and rural white communities — often on the frontlines of industrial pollution — will likely bear the brunt of these changes.
Key quote:
“EPA is taking the next step to terminate the Biden-Harris Administration’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Environmental Justice arms of the agency.”
— EPA spokesperson
Why this matters:
Cutting environmental justice programs means fewer protections for people already hit hardest by pollution, from asthma to cancer risk, and continues a national shift away from addressing health disparities caused by toxic exposures, while leaving vulnerable communities even more at risk. It's part of a broader plan by the Trump administration to drastically reduce the EPA's budget by 65%, with significant hits likely for both environmental justice and scientific research.
Read more:
- An open letter from EPA staff to the American public
- Opinion: I live in Flint, Michigan. Shuttering environmental justice at EPA hurts communities like mine
- Federal environmental justice shutdown leaves rural communities at risk
- EPA dismantles decades of work on environmental justice
- Pittsburgh's asthma epidemic and the fight to stop it
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