environmental justice

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Is planting trees 'DEI'? Trump administration cuts nationwide tree-planting effort

5:00am March 21, 2025

The Trump administration's efforts to end DEI programs is hitting some unexpected targets, including a nationwide effort planting shade trees in neighborhoods to reduce extreme heat.

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EPA employees who work on environmental justice are put on leave

11:32pm February 06, 2025

A majority of employees who work in the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights have been put on paid leave effective immediately. They all work on environmental justice issues or on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Map illustrates the counties with the highest number of reported toxic chemical releases yearly.

Environment

Governor's office seeks public input on environmental justice initiative

12:57pm July 29, 2024

by April Laissle

As part of the initiative, officials created a mapping tool to make it easier for citizens to identify environmental justice issues. It charts the locations of hazardous waste sites, drought or flood-prone areas, and the rates of certain diseases by location, among other things.

Ithaca residents called for officials to take action on climate change at a rally on Earth Day 2024.

After adopting its own Green New Deal, a college town sets a new target

5:00am May 04, 2024

by Rebecca Redelmeier

Ithaca, N.Y., will require that 50% of the money spent on its energy transition and on major infrastructure projects is directed toward those residents most at risk from climate change.

Robert Taylor lives about a half-mile from Denka Performance Elastomer, a plant affected by the EPA's new rule, in Reserve, Louisiana.

For communities near chemical plants, EPA's new air pollution rule spells relief

7:33pm April 09, 2024

by Halle Parker

The Environmental Protection Agency tightens standards for air pollution coming from more than 200 chemical plants in the U.S.

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Wake Forest awarded $1M grant for project focusing on environmental justice

10:47am January 13, 2023

by Neal Charnoff

Wake Forest University has been awarded a $1 million grant for a project focusing on environmental justice.

Environment

Biden administration launches environmental justice office

11:53am September 26, 2022

by Hannah Schoenbaum, Associated Press

President Joe Biden’s top environment official visited what is widely considered the birthplace of the environmental justice movement Saturday to unveil a national office that will distribute $3 bi

A line of petrochemical facilities in St. Charles Parish, La., in 2018. Many people who live near industrial sites, and who are exposed to dangerous pollution, fear that the Inflation Reduction Act will deepen existing environmental inequalities.

The spending bill will cut emissions, but marginalized groups feel they were sold out

4:21pm August 17, 2022

by Rebecca Hersher

The Inflation Reduction Act is the biggest ever investment to tackle climate change. But there are signs that it could reinforce existing environmental inequalities.

Protestors attempt to block the delivery of toxic PCB waste to a landfill in Warren County, North Carolina, 1982. It was in response to the State's decision to locate a hazardous waste landfill in a low-income, predominantly Black area of Warren County th

Hope And Skepticism As Biden Promises To Address Environmental Racism

9:38pm January 29, 2021

by Rebecca Hersher

Environmental racism means that people of color experience more air and water pollution than white people, and suffer the health impacts. Can Biden change that?

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Report Links Racial Inequities To Climate Change Impact, Offers Guidance

4:51pm September 10, 2020

by Eddie Garcia

A new study is offering guidance to North Carolina's leaders on how to address climate change, with a focus on issues of environmental justice.