The EPA has long been complicit in environmental racism. But now, a new office has been implemented to oversee environmental justice and civil rights and has been granted $3 billion to put toward remedying injustices.
is among those named to head the agency as acting deputy principal administrator of the new office.
“There are some communities that have a concentration of polluting sources,” she says. “These communities are disproportionately communities of color, Indigenous communities and low-income white communities.” Inaction has had severe implications for populations stricken with high levels of cancer, disproportionately affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic due to systemic respiratory issues, or coping with any number of other afflictions.“EPA has been criticized time and again for needing a more robust civil rights program,” she says.
No More Excuses: Building A New Vision of Civil Rights Enforcement in the Context of Environmental Justice“More than 50 years after the passage of Title VI … civil rights rights enforcement in the environmental context has languished,” Engelman-Lado says. Engelman-Lado is confident that the agency will now address those needs.