EPA employees who work on environmental justice are put on leave – public media in Wyoming

Nearly 170 employees of the Environmental Environmental and External Civil Rights Agency’s Environmental Protection Agency (OEJECR) were placed on paid administrative leave on Thursday, according to agency officials who speak on condition of anonymity because they are afraid of retribution.

Many employees are leaving leave of part -time or mainly environmental efforts intended to reduce the environmental and minority communities that are currently facing disproportionate damage from the environmental pollution And the climate.

President Trump has expressed interest in getting rid of the office, along with other programs and offices in the federal government who are involved in environmental justice. He signed Enforcement orders to his first day in the office to activate this processS

The affected employees were informed of the decision during a meeting on Thursday afternoon, after which they received an email warning them that they were on administrative leave, in force immediately. Dozens of employees based at the EPA headquarters were affected, along with those of the 10th EPA regional offices across the country. NPR examined the email and confirmed the reports with several sources in the office.

The number of staff put on leave is important, relevant to the size of the office and “He leaves the EPA environmental justice program to support life, “says Matthew Tedjada, a former OEECR deputy helpor during the Biden administration. He is currently a senior environmental specialist at the Council for the Protection of Natural Resources.

The growing EPA imprint from the environment

For many years, work on environmental justice in the EPA was housed in the small office of environmental justice, staff of several dozen people. This office, under another namewas established in 1992 by Republican President George H. Bush.

Efforts for environmental justice have received federal support in the coming years. President Bill Clinton has issued a 1994 enforcement order requiring federal agencies to consider environmental justice in decision -making; The efforts continued during the Obama administration. Then the Biden administration made the environmental justice even more existent focus. He initiated the Justice40 initiative designed to direct 40% of the federal benefits to the climate and the environment to communities that have been historically subjected to the worst pollution.

In 2022, EPA united the Service of Ecological Justice with two more to create OEJECRS By 2024, it had increased staff both at the EPA headquarters and in the 10th EPA regional offices across the country to over 200.

“It was small but super powerful,” says Sakobi Wilson, an environmental justice expert at the University of Maryland. “People were super engaged and engaged because they were part of a movement. It was something more than themselves.”

The service now monitors and administers over $ 3 billion grants and loans related to climate and environmental justice, largely funded through the first major climate policy in the country, the Law on Decreasing Inflation. Funded projects refer to a wide range of environmental and climate risks.

“Communities wanted money to take churches, their schools, their libraries and to turn them into centers where communities can be sheltered and obtain medical attention and have access to communications and have access to electricity stored on the battery” during disasters , says Tajada. “The tribes wanted solar massifs to feed their rural communities and give them some stability and some relief from energy prices.”

The Office approved and signed contracts for hundreds of projects led by the Community, as they add up to over 80% of the funds aimed at office programs as per ZealtFormer senior EPA administrator adviser. However, the future of these projects is unclear after the Trump administration freezing federal funding for grants and other programs in late JanuaryS

“The obligation to provide Benny people with good means to access their funds is crystal clear,” Hoover says.

NPR also addressed the EPA to the Trump administration for comment. None of them responded until the time of publication.

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