If you were to believe reporting from The New York Times—which is an increasingly unwise idea—the Trump administration is diverting the attention of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from poor and minority communities that face "disproportionately high levels of pollution." But if you scratch the surface even a bit, you find that what's really being eliminated are "environmental justice" offices that infuse identitarian ideology into EPA enforcement efforts. Americans should welcome efforts to strip racial obsessions from the armory of regulators who already wield too much power.
Competing Takes on 'Environmental Justice'
"The Trump administration intends to eliminate Environmental Protection Agency offices responsible for addressing the disproportionately high levels of pollution facing poor communities, according to a memo from Lee Zeldin, the agency administrator," Lisa Friedman wrote for the Times. She added that the memo directed the reorganization and elimination of "offices of environmental justice at all 10 E.P.A. regional offices as well as the one in Washington."
