The Environmental Protection Agency launched a new office for environmental justice that will focus on delivering funds and aiding minority communities affected by pollution, agency officials announced Saturday.
The new Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights will oversee the delivery of $3 billion in environmental justice grants provided by funds allocated in the Inflation Reduction Act, according to EPA Administrator Michael Regan. The office will also enforce federal civil rights laws and help resolve environmental conflicts.
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“With the launch of a new national program office, we are embedding environmental justice and civil rights into the DNA of EPA and ensuring that people who’ve struggled to have their concerns addressed see action to solve the problems they’ve been facing for generations,” Regan said in a statement.
The announcement was made in Warren County, North Carolina, which is considered the birthplace of the environmental justice movement.
The new federal office will combine three existing offices of environmental justice, civil rights, and conflict prevention and resolution into one office. The office will be staffed by 200 EPA employees and led by an assistant administrator that will need Senate confirmation. No names have been proposed to fill the position so far.
President Joe Biden, who signed the Inflation Reduction Act last month, has made environmental justice a core focus of his administration. Days after taking office last year, Biden signed an executive order titled Justice40 that pledged 40% of federal clean energy investments into environmental justice. Biden also established a White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council last year.
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The Justice Department announced the creation of the new office in May, claiming it would help low-income areas and communities of color battle the disproportionate impact of air and water pollution.
