‘A much-needed step’: EPA creates a new environmental justice office

The Biden administration announced a new environmental justice initiative over the weekend, with $3 billion in block grants to go to communities and neighborhoods hard hit by pollution.

Michael Regan, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the new Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights will have a prominent role in the agency and will be made up of more than 200 current EPA staff members to be located in 10 regions and will be led by an assistant administrator to be named by President Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Regan, the first Black man to hold the position, made the announcement in Warren County, North Carolina, near the site of a protest against a toxic waste dump 40 years ago that civil rights leaders laud as helping to spark the national environmental justice movement.

Read more.