The EPA announced on Sept. 24 that it would introduce the new Office for Environmental Justice. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
By Sarah Grinnell ’26
Staff Writer
On Saturday, Sept. 24, the Environmental Protection Agency launched a new office dedicated to environmental justice, MSNBC reported. Climate professionals believe this signifies a hopeful step toward a future of climate policy that is equitable and cognizant of the needs of all, an article from the EPA said.
As stated on their website, the EPA is a federal agency charged with the protection of human and environmental welfare, overseeing a myriad of roles in relation to guaranteeing access to clean air, land and water, as well as creating laws pertaining to natural resources, energy, agriculture and industry. The EPA website says environmental justice is “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin or income, with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.” CNN reported that the new office for environmental justice will expand the EPA’s duties to better respond to the needs of underrepresented communities.
An article from CNN explains how the office will aim to strategically crack down on the “disproportionate harm that pollution and climate change has caused in low-income areas and communities of color.” To achieve this, the office will utilize $3 billion of the funds raised by the Inflation Reduction Act within its grant programs.
The senate’s recently unveiled Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed earlier this year, will provide $369 billion for “climate and clean energy provisions,” which, if executed, would reduce the United States’ carbon emissions by 40 percent, according to an article from CNBC. Over $60 billion of these funds will go toward environmental justice initiatives, with a focus on addressing the disproportionate impacts of pollution on low-income and marginalized communities.
Mount Holyoke’s Director of Sustainability and Associate Director of the Miller Worley Center for the Environment Raghu Raghavan expressed how “we have an extremely unequal society with the most marginalized, vulnerable people unable to fend for themselves as the climate catastrophe unfolds.” He continued, “If the problem of injustice is tackled, the climate crisis will be tackled.”
To Raghavan, this is the root philosophy of environmental justice — the need to connect all the “various diseases” and “discriminatory processes that we have in our society” in a way that fosters “an equitable community … that has, if not eradicated, minimized very drastically the various discriminations that we have.” According to Raghavan, environmental policy is inseparable from social inequity, and therefore society must make strides to “build a healthy community based on . . . interpersonal bonding” that can “tackle those disparities.”
EPA Administrator Michael Regan expressed a similar sentiment in the agency’s statement, according to CNN. The statement detailed that “from day one, President Biden and [the] EPA have been committed to delivering progress on environmental justice and civil rights and ensuring that underserved and overburdened communities are at the forefront of our work.” Regan’s statement continued, “With the launch of a new national program office, we are embedding environmental justice and civil rights into the DNA of [the] 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.”
Raghavan expressed cautious optimism regarding the new office. “Do I have hopes for it? Yes I do. But that’s not sufficient,” he said. “Like with any aspect of public engagement and democracy, … it is important for us, meaning the citizenry, to always be vigilant and be engaged in ensuring that what this particular initiative of environmental justice promises, we see through to completion.” According to Raghavan, the passage of the initiative itself, therefore, does not remotely signify the end of the battle. Instead, he urged that “we have to be vigilant and constantly participate to ensure that the promise is fulfilled.”
Ultimately, only time will tell whether the environmental justice office will serve as the first major springboard toward these necessary changes, but, as Raghavan emphasized, if Americans “take action” and hold this new office accountable to its promises, there could be potential to fix this crisis and catapult America into the future of socially-conscious environmental action required to combat the climate catastrophe in its entirety.