Written by by NICK POPE at wattsupwiththat.com
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intensified its “environmental justice” agenda in 2023 in terms of enforcement and grantmaking.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in May 2023 that the agency has “built environmental justice into [its] very DNA,” and over the course of the year the agency significantly increased enforcement in specific areas across the country, while handing out hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to environmentalist groups to pursue environmental justice projects. These developments reflect a broader effort by the EPA and Biden administration to infuse social justice ideology into bureaucratic functions, and a strategy to build political patronage by funding activist organizations with taxpayer dollars, experts told the DCNF.
“From day one, President Biden and 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,” an EPA spokeswoman told the DCNF. “The agency is ensuring that people who’ve struggled to have their concerns addressed see action to solve the problems they’ve been facing for generations. These efforts to integrate EJ and equity into all of EPA’s work is seen through the work of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance in its enforcement of environmental laws.”