Environmental Justice is Not About “Them.” It’s About All of Us.

By Sharmila L. Murthy, Jalonne L. White-Newsome, Marianne Engelman-Lado, Natasha DeJarnett, Shelby Benz, Aruni Ranaweera, Allison Rogers, and Christina Bowman

Imagine that the very air you breathe is so toxic it makes you sick. Or that your children suffer developmental delays because they are unknowingly exposed to lead through the water they drink or the paint in their homes. This is the reality that millions of Americans face every day—and it is what environmental justice is all about.

Through our prior efforts at the White House Office of Environmental Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, we worked hard to make the nation a cleaner and safer place for everyone. Now, the Trump Administration is taking a wrecking ball to important longstanding environmental and health protections. It is shuttering federal offices across the country that serve overburdened communities. It is trying to fire longtime public servants who help ensure that our air, water, and neighborhoods are safe. The Trump Administration is giving polluters free reign to pollute, which will raise health costs for all and cause pain across our nation. For political expediency, the Trump Administration is distorting the meaning of environmental justice.

Environmental justice means that all people—not just the privileged—should be able to breathe clean air, drink safe water, and live in an environment that is free from harmful pollution and chemical exposures. Regardless of who you are and where you live, you should be treated justly and be given the chance to have a say in government decision-making that impacts your health and environment.

The Trump Administration cannot stop the environmental justice movement. Over the last half-century, communities fighting for fairness and equal protection against pollution have galvanized this movement. In the 1980s, residents of Warren County, North Carolina protested and put their bodies on the line to stop the construction of a hazardous waste landfill in a Black neighborhood in one of the poorest counties in the state. In 2014, the nation watched in horror and mobilized as residents of Flint, Michigan learned that their drinking water was contaminated with lead after a state-appointed emergency manager switched the water supply from Detroit’s system to the Flint River.  Even today, residents displaced from Mossville, Louisiana suffer health consequences from the dozen or more industries that continue to surround their community. But, rather than try to improve the lives of people living near polluting facilities, the Trump Administration is dropping enforcement actions intended to protect people’s health. It is carelessly rolling back longstanding federal environmental and health advancements, jeopardizing the well-being of people across our nation.

Communities will no longer share in prosperity from federal investments that could expand infrastructure, produce jobs, build resilience to extreme weather events, and keep families healthy. The Trump Administration is dismantling the historic Justice40 Initiative, which sought to direct forty percent of the overall benefits of federal investments related to climate, energy, water, housing, transportation and other areas to disadvantaged communities. This will hurt communities in blue and red states. In fact, red states and GOP congressional districts have benefitted most from the largest investment in climate and clean energy in human history through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The public now has less access to important tools that allow you to understand the health of your community. The Trump Administration has taken down important datasets and mapping tools, like the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool and EPA’s EJScreen. The Trump Administration has also dismantled key research drivers, like the National Science and Technology Council’s Environmental Justice Subcommittee, which issued a groundbreaking report last year called the Environmental Justice Science, Data, and Research Plan.

We are now in an era of disinformation and disrespect for the rule of law and the basic tenets of democracy. The Trump Administration is destroying initiatives that sought to promote accountability and transparency, such as the Environmental Justice Scorecard, which provided the public with key information on agency progress towards health and environmental protection. The Administration has also sought to silence important expert voices on environmental health and protection by dissolving the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, which had been created in 2021, and the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, which had provided recommendations to EPA since 1993.

We all now have work to do to keep our families and communities safe. Write to your elected representatives and let them know that you stand for greater health and environmental protections for all. Let your elected officials know that you do not support the Trump Administration’s dangerous agenda. Tell your state and local leaders to develop stronger laws, regulations and programs on environmental justice –- even using federal actions, such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations, issued in May 2024, or Executive Order 14096 on Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All, signed in April 2023, as models for renewed action. Volunteer with your local environmental and environmental justice organizations. Be a champion for environmental justice.

Despite the Trump Administration’s rhetoric, environmental justice is not about “them.” It's about making sure no child is exposed to lead in water. It's about making sure that no family fears that the air they are breathing is poisoning them. It’s about all of us.

Marianne Engelman-Lado served as the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Office of Environmental Justice and Civil Rights at EPA, among other roles. All the other authors worked at the White House Office of Environmental Justice during the Biden-Harris Administration under the leadership of then-Federal Chief Environmental Justice Officer, Dr. Jalonne L. White-Newsome. Sharmila L. Murthy served as Director for Environmental Justice; Dr. Natasha DeJarnett served as Deputy Director for Environmental Justice Data and Evaluation; Shelby Benz served as Special Assistant for Environmental Justice; Aruni Ranaweera is a graduate student at Harvard Kennedy School of Government who interned with the office; Allison Rogers served as Director for Environmental Justice Public Engagement; and Christina Bowman served as Deputy Director for Environmental Justice, and then as the Chief of Staff at the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy.