Environmental Justice

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The latest news on EPA and Biden administration efforts to address the effects of environmental releases on poor and minority communities, including permit reviews, civil rights investigations, and funding priorities.


D.C. Circuit Reverses First LNG Vacatur Following Trump’s EJ Directives

The D.C. Circuit is reversing its first-time vacatur of a liquified natural gas (LNG) project approval and instead remanding the issue to federal regulators for additional environmental justice (EJ) study, even as it acknowledges that the Trump administration’s reversal of EJ directives could be “highly relevant” to how regulators proceed. The March 18 opinion in City of Port Isabel v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), et al. , comes in response to industry petitions for a three-judge panel of the...

EPA Realigns Enforcement Priorities To Reflect Zeldin’s ‘5 Pillars,’ Trump EOs

EPA is realigning its enforcement priorities to reflect new Trump administration priorities, deemphasizing climate change and environmental justice (EJ) and easing enforcement against energy-sector facilities, reflecting Administrator Lee Zeldin’s “5 Pillars” along with a host of executive orders (EOs) from President Donald Trump. Jeffrey Hall, acting chief in EPA’s Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance (OECA), issued a March 12 memo obtained by Inside EPA that promises modifications to the fiscal year 2024-2027 National Enforcement & Compliance Initiatives (NECIs)...

Zeldin Officially Eliminates EPA Environmental Justice, Civil Rights Office

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has eliminated the agency’s Office of Environmental Justice & External Civil Rights (OEJECR) and canceled $2 billion in related grant funding, a move long expected after President Donald Trump vowed to undo Biden-era EJ and civil rights measures as part of his push to eliminate “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI). Zeldin issued the order in a March 11 internal memo that eliminates OEJECR and the assistant administrator position the Biden EPA created to run the first-time...

DOJ, GOP praise EPA for dropping ‘radical’ Denka suit

Trump administration officials, GOP lawmakers and others are praising EPA’s decision to drop a novel air enforcement suit against Louisiana chemical manufacturer Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE), the country’s sole producer of the synthetic rubber component neoprene, hailing the development as a win against “radical” Biden-era policies. EPA last week moved to dismiss the case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, in United States of America v. Denka Performance Elastomer LLC et al . EPA brought...

Zeldin Touts Core EPA Mission As Senators Urge EJ Office Reinstatement

A group of 17 Senate Democrats is urging EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to re-establish the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR) that the Trump administration disbanded, though the administrator told staff last month that while the agency will continue doing some EJ work, he will not re-establish the office. “The environmental justice office isn’t going to continue to exist the way that it was,” Zeldin said during a Feb. 13 visit to EPA Region 2, according to...

Experts Urge Businesses To Continue EJ Efforts Despite Trump Rollbacks

Top environmental law experts are advising corporate clients to remain attentive to environmental justice (EJ) issues, saying state requirements and best business practices both point to its continued relevance despite the Trump administration’s efforts to purge EJ concerns from federal environmental policy. At a Feb. 20 environmental law seminar held by the American Law Institute, John Cruden, former head of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and current principal at industry law firm Beveridge & Diamond, said President...

Denka, EPA Spar Over Witnesses As Novel Endangerment Trial Looms

Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE), the Louisiana-based synthetic rubber manufacturer, and EPA are sparring over the company’s plans to call two state officials to appear in the first trial in an “imminent and substantial endangerment” case over environmental justice (EJ) impacts, though the company is urging officials to nix the case. Judge Carl Barbier of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana set a Feb. 28 deadline for EPA to formally object to Denka’s plan to call Aurelia...

EPA details plan to cut $67 million in Biden-era EJ grants

The Trump EPA is planning to cut $67 million in environmental justice (EJ) grants that Biden-era officials had said they would award to 20 nonprofits and universities, the first specific number that has been reported in the new administration’s widespread effort to “claw back” this type of funding. The New York Post Feb. 22 reported that EPA and officials from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) flagged 21 grants totally $77.1 million and headed to 20 nonprofits and universities...

Trump EPA Strips EJ Language From West Virginia CCS Permit Primacy Rules

EPA has quietly dropped references to the environmental justice (EJ) aspects of West Virginia’s carbon storage well permit program from a Biden-era rule granting the state primary authority over those wells, a move that reiterates the administration’s opposition to EJ measures though it is not clear if it will affect the state’s pledges. During a Feb. 18 ceremony, Administrator Lee Zeldin signed a revised final rule stripping the EJ language from the version initially crafted by the Biden administration. At...

Shuttered WHEJAC Might Continue Work Outside Of Federal Government

Members of the now-shuttered Biden-era White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) say they are considering continuing their role informally outside the federal government, where they would work with state and local governments to continue the group’s mission. Members of the council, along with Jalonne White Newsome, the former top White House environmental justice (EJ) official, also say they are working on a “Project 2029,” to further advance the panel’s work after the second Trump administration ends, a reference to...

Former Advisors Seek To Continue Work As EPA Shutters EJ Programs

The Biden EPA’s environmental justice (EJ) advisors are planning to continue discussions on crafting advice on cumulative impacts and other work they had begun prior to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, an effort aimed at advancing their agenda even as the new administration shutters the agency’s EJ programs. EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC), which has advised EPA on EJ issues for three decades, “has not stopped working,” says Leticia Colon de Mejias, a member of NEJAC from Region 1...

EPA Staff Brace For Closure Of National EJ, Civil Rights Program Office

EPA staffers in the Office of Environmental Justice & External Civil Rights (OEJECR) are being told that the office -- which combined the Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) and the External Civil Rights Compliance Office (ECRCO) and had been elevated to a national program office in 2022 -- will be closing imminently. One former official in the office who exited with the Biden administration says OEJECR is informing staff of the office’s elimination today (Feb. 5). A second former official...

Appeals Court Questions Impact Of Trump’s EJ Repeal On NEPA Case

A federal appellate panel is weighing the adequacy of an agency’s environmental justice (EJ) analysis conducted as part of a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order (EO) revoking all federal EJ requirements. During Jan. 28 oral arguments in Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club v. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) , a case challenging the federal government’s approval of the addition of toll lanes on the Maryland side of the Capital Beltway,...

Trump’s Sweeping Moves To End EJ Programs Sparks Sharp Criticism

President Donald Trump in a sweeping effort is ending all federal environmental justice (EJ) efforts, including revoking a Clinton-era directive that created EPA’s EJ office and directing all agencies to close EJ offices and related programs within 30 days. The moves -- which come in the opening days of Trump’s second term -- are sparking confusion and sharp criticism from advocates and others who have long pushed to address pollution harms in minority and disadvantaged communities. With so many EJ...

Denka Prepares For Novel Air Trial While Hoping Trump Quickly Drops Case

Attorneys for Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE) say they will have to begin preparing for a novel Clean Air Act trial a federal judge is ordering to begin April 14 even as they are trying to meet with incoming Trump administration officials in a bid to convince them to dismiss the case, which the company has long argued is politically motivated. Jason Hutt, a Bracewell attorney representing Denka in the suit, United States v. DPE , says a trial is “a...

EJ Advocates Press Biden EPA To Sign IRA Grants Before Trump Takes Over

Environmental justice (EJ) advocates are ramping up efforts to convince EPA to “immediately distribute” more than $50 million in promised EJ grant funding under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), raising concern that if the money is not obligated before the Biden administration ends Jan. 20, the incoming Trump team will reallocate it to “extractive industries.” “Time is almost up. . . . The stakes couldn’t be higher,” the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA), a group that is awaiting funds from EPA,...

EPA Critics Claim Trump, GOP Can Target California ZEV Waiver Using CRA

Industry attorneys and their GOP allies are claiming that Congress could quickly revoke EPA’s recent federal preemption waiver for California’s zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandates via the Congressional Review Act (CRA), despite prior analysis from Hill watchdogs that such waivers cannot be targeted under the law. The pitch in a Jan. 8 Wall Street Journal op-ed comes amid expectations the incoming Trump EPA is already poised to target California’s waivers for its mobile source emissions rules. Top lawmakers also appear...

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