Latest news with #EnvironmentalJustice
Fox News
03-07-2025
- Business
- Fox News
EPA places numerous employees on leave for alleged misuse of official titles in unauthorized letter
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently placed nearly 140 employees on administrative leave amid an investigation into employees who signed on to a letter allegedly using their official titles and EPA positions. Written as agency employees, the letter contained information that misled the public about agency business, according to officials. The EPA confirmed it placed 139 employees on administrative leave pending an investigation. "The Environmental Protection Agency has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging and undercutting the administration's agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November," an EPA spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Thursday. The letter came after President Donald Trump's administration in April fired or reassigned nearly 500 EPA employees. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin confirmed 280 staffers in the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, Office of Inclusive Excellence, and EPA regional offices, were fired. Zeldin added that 175 others were reassigned. The EPA's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Environmental Justice arms were also eliminated, as Zeldin cut back more than 30 Biden-era regulations. Though more than a hundred employees were allegedly put on leave, there are thousands of employees at the agency. The EPA did not provide Fox News Digital with any additional information about the situation.
E&E News
03-07-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Disruptive climate group lands tax-exempt status
Climate Defiance, a 2-year-old organization known for disrupting politicians during high-profile events, now has government approval to receive tax-deductible donations, the group announced this week. The IRS has recognized the Climate Defiance Foundation as a 501(c)(3) organization that can receive tax-deductible donations and can receive contributions directly from foundations and donor-advised funds. Climate Defiance plans to continue to operate its 501(c)(4) entity, Climate Defiance Action, due to limits on what the foundation is allowed to do. The recognition can 'help us level up and reach the max level of power and scale,' said Michael Greenberg, who founded Climate Defiance in 2023. Advertisement The organization launched during the Biden administration and regularly disrupted speeches and events featuring administration officials.
Irish Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Ireland's energy and climate plan far from sufficient, EU Commission finds
Ireland's current National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) remains far from sufficient to meet its climate commitments, an assessment by the European Commission has found. Although investment needs of €119 billion - €125 billion are outlined in the plan, 'there is no explanation of how this will be funded or whether a financing gap exists', it concludes. Ireland remains off course for its 2030 climate targets , with its NECP projecting a 25.4 per cent emissions reduction, well below the legally binding 42 per cent target under the EU's key 'effort-sharing regulation'. This sets national climate targets for emissions in road transport, buildings, agriculture, waste and small industries. The NECP outlines each EU member state's strategy to meet its climate and energy targets for 2030, including emissions reductions, renewable energy deployment and energy efficiency. READ MORE The commission's assessment evaluates whether these plans are sufficient and credible, offering guidance on gaps, shortcomings and areas for improvement. It plays a critical role in holding governments accountable and ensuring collective progress toward EU climate goals. Its assessment was released on Wednesday, the same day the Environmental Protection Agency published updated emissions projections for achieving Ireland's 2030 climate targets – 'which together offer a stark and urgent warning about the widening gap between Ireland's climate commitments and actual delivery', according to Environmental Justice Network Ireland (EJNI). [ Ireland's emissions trend 'alarming and shocking, with actions reset required' Opens in new window ] Ireland is projected to achieve a reduction of just 23 per cent in total greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared with a national target of 51 per cent. EJNI director Dr Ciara Brennan said: 'This is another clear signal that Ireland's climate plans are not on track. The commission's assessment confirms what Irish civil society has been saying for some time. Ireland is still far from meeting its 2030 climate and energy targets, and its NECP has missed a critical opportunity to make necessary course corrections.' The commission noted Ireland's renewable energy target was raised, but short-term delivery lags. 'While the 2030 target was increased to 43 per cent, interim milestones for 2025 and 2027 fall short.' The plan lacks specific targets for buildings and district heating, 'with many measures relying on speculative technologies and unclear timelines', it finds. Agriculture measures, it says, fall short on ambition and feasibility. 'The plan leans heavily on technologies still in development and lacks incentives for uptake. Crucially, it avoids deeper reforms such as reducing dairy herd size or diversifying agricultural systems.' Land-use emissions are rising, with Ireland projected to miss its target by 1.36 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. 'The plan lacks robust monitoring and credible data, undermining the reliability of projected [carbon] removals,' the commission concludes. The Government is criticised for having no clear plan to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. Its assessment may not compel an immediate revision of the NECP, but reinforces legal concerns already raised by EJNI and others, Dr Brennan said. The persistent delivery gaps, especially in agriculture, energy efficiency and land use, leave the Government exposed to potential infringement procedures, she warned. The findings have consequences for Ireland's social climate plan, due by June 30th, which must be consistent with the NECP to unlock EU funding. In November 2024, EJNI joined a coalition of NGOs from other EU states to call on the commission to take legal action against what they identified as noncompliance EU laws in the updating of NECPs. The action highlighted widespread deficiencies in NECPs from France, Ireland, Germany, Italy and Sweden. Why is Ireland so far off its climate targets? Listen | 21:07
Chicago Tribune
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Peter S. Wenz: Thanks to Pete Hegseth, I'm censored more here than in China
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has evicted an anthology I co-edited with philosopher Laura Westra from the U.S. Naval Academy library. I don't know about Laura, but I'm pleased that they thought some midshipman may want to read 'Faces of Environmental Racism,' published initially in 1995. In the 30 years since, we may have poisoned the minds of some midshipmen who are now captains or even admirals. Or Hegseth may just be protecting young sailors with dust allergies from picking up the book. My more serious guess is that the term 'racism' is the reason for the book's expulsion. It combines case studies with theoretical analyses of racism in public and private decision-making, mostly regarding land use. The subject is environmental racism, a subtopic of environmental justice. I am among a handful of people who, entirely independently of one another, coined the term 'environmental justice' in the early 1980s, and my book 'Environmental Justice' (State University of New York Press, 1988) is the first to use the expression anywhere in the title or subtitle of any book. The administration of President Donald Trump has a penchant toward one-sided views, which explains its attempts to stifle alternative narratives, claiming them to be one-sided, which they often are. Consider critical race theory. In my view, it's supported by a great deal of evidence, but it's one-sided. Progress in race relations is given short shrift. Similarly, but on the opposite side, Thomas Sowell's 'The Vision of the Anointed' castigates liberals for claiming that they alone occupy the moral high ground. Sowell is correct about liberals, but his thesis that only liberals do this is all wrong. He ignores conservatives doing the very same thing — for example, 'the moral majority.' Both critical race theory and Sowell's view are valuable contributions, so long as alternative views are available, just as two sides are typically presented in judicial proceedings. Apparently, Hegseth doesn't want young minds polluted by knowledge that the interstates they travel on through cities required destruction of mostly minority communities; toxic waste is still located mostly near such communities; and air pollution and cancer rates remain higher there than elsewhere due to incineration and oil refining. My contribution to the anthology mitigates the concentration on race. The disproportionate harm to minority communities, which are often poor, may result from poverty rather than race. Land is cheaper where poor people live, so the cost of destroying a community or lowering its land values due to pollution is less. Harming minorities follows from cost-benefit analysis. It reduces the monetary cost to society of promoting our material way of life. Informed discussion requires attention to both benefits and burdens. My article offers a procedure to reduce injustices caused by using only monetary measures of benefits and burdens when lives are at stake. While all of us tend to appreciate the presentation of our own side more than that of the other side, the Chinese have been more open than Hegseth to my presentations, and that of others, on environmental matters. The Chinese government gave a grant to Northwest University in Xi'An to translate and publish Western works in environmental ethics. My book 'Environmental Justice' was published in 2007 by the Shanghai People's Publishing House. In 2015, the Chinese government paid me to give lectures at two universities in Xi'An based largely on this book. Xi Jinping was already the head of government, so I asked my host if I should really lecture students and larger gatherings of academics on the importance of human rights. I was told that this was fine, so I went ahead. Such tolerance continued for years while Xi maintained his power. In 2021, a second translation of my book was published in Chinese, this time by Truth and Wisdom Press. I find it odd that China, a notorious abuser of human rights, would subsidize the publication of a book presenting ideas at odds with its ideology, whereas the Trump administration considers my thoughts too toxic to remain in a government library. We should heed the wise words of English philosopher John Stuart Mill in 'On Liberty': 'He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion.' Leaders who stifled dissent, who insisted that only one side of important issues be presented — King Charles I of England and Adolf Hitler come to mind — didn't serve their countries well. Currently, Nicolas Maduro, Vladimir Putin and the Kim dynasty, brooking no dissent, are devastating their countries. We shouldn't let that happen here.
Forbes
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
The Trump Administration Is Rolling Back Environmental Justice Efforts. Here's How That Affects Public Health.
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA - OCTOBER 12: Smoke billows from one of many chemical plants in the area ... More October 12, 2013. 'Cancer Alley' is one of the most polluted areas of the United States and lies along the once pristine Mississippi River that stretches some 80 miles from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, where a dense concentration of oil refineries, petrochemical plants, and other chemical industries reside alongside suburban homes. (Photo by.) Amidst the flurry of directives emerging from the Trump administration, there have been several sweeping steps to dismantle efforts at environmental justice. Last month, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, announced '31 historic actions in the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history,' including 'terminating Biden's Environmental Justice and DEI arms of the agency.' Practically speaking, this move targets ten regional offices and the central environmental justice division of the EPA. The decision is in line with President Trump's Executive Order 14151, titled 'Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing,' which was issued on his first day in office. Couched within the text is a call for the termination of all 'environmental justice offices and positions' as well as an examination of whether these environmental justice roles 'have been misleadingly relabeled in an attempt to preserve their pre-November 4, 2024 function.' That the Trump administration would seek to erode much of President Biden's legacy on environmental justice is unsurprising. During the 2024 presidential campaign, President Trump repeatedly flouted concerns around climate change, terming the issue 'one of the greatest scams of all time.' In line with this ethos, his return to office has catalyzed the U.S.'s rapid retreat from multiple key climate efforts, including the Paris Agreement and a meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. However, the Trump administration's decision to undo domestic environmental justice initiatives may prove damaging to an extent that could take time to fully appreciate. The American Public Health Association characterizes environmental justice as 'the idea that all people and communities have the right to live and thrive in safe, healthy environments with equal environmental protections and meaningful involvement in these actions.' Central to understanding this idea is acknowledging that communities across the country have historically not enjoyed equal environmental protections. Take, for instance, Cancer Alley. Tracing the Mississippi River, this 85-mile region is home to numerous petrochemical plants, which have sullied the air. This resulting pollution has had deleterious effects on the area's residents, with some pockets of the region being estimated to confer a 700-times greater cancer risk relative to the national average. Residents of the region have long sought resolutions and recourse to this toxic calamity, especially after the EPA's risk assessment tools underscored the links between nearby chemical exposure and poor health outcomes. One EPA report, titled 'Waiting to Die,' borrows its name from the haunting words of a resident who succumbed to cancer, underscoring the profound environmental injustices that locals have endured. These lasting effects require a strong, coordinated public health response, rooted in recognition that communities have faced these environmental harms unevenly. Meaningfully righting these wrongs starts with a thorough investigation of their roots, a strategic deployment of resources, and robust community partnerships to gather feedback and prevent recurrence. This series of essential, corrective measures are essentially precluded by a political climate that buries the topic of environmental injustice in the first place. To take another example of how recognizing environmental injustices is critical for improving public health, consider the emerging research on urban heat islands. According to the EPA, heat islands can arise 'when areas experience hotter temperatures within a city.' In cities that have an uneven distribution of foliage, neighborhoods featuring more greenery can offer a relative cooling effect, enabling residents to better withstand dangerously hot summers. This natural effect is especially important when considering that not all residents may have access to air conditioning or cooling centers. Even when that access exists, periods of extreme heat can often contribute to power outages, amplifying the danger to public health. All things considered, it's thus vital to continue to work towards environmental justice solutions, even as the discipline faces mounting pressure in the new political era. The future of healthy communities depends on it.
