Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday introduced a new office on the Justice Department that can focus completely on environmental justice.
The office, which is able to prioritize low-income communities which were hit laborious by air pollution and contamination, was launched in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency.
“The Office of Environmental Justice will serve as the central hub for our efforts to advance our comprehensive environmental justice enforcement strategy,” Garland stated at a news convention alongside EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
“Although violations of our environmental laws can happen anywhere, communities of color, indigenous communities and low-income communities often bear the brunt of the harm caused by environmental crime, pollution and climate change,” Garland added.
The Biden administration has requested Congress for $1.4 million for the office. Shalanda Young, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, not too long ago instructed lawmakers that the Justice Department “absolutely needs the tools to make sure all Americans are treated equally under the law even when there are environmental issues.”
Garland stated Thursday that the Office of Environmental Justice will probably be headed by Cynthia Ferguson, a Justice Department veteran from the division’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
After environmental legal referrals dipped in the course of the Trump administration, President Joe Biden issued an govt order in January 2021 directing the legal professional basic to “ensure comprehensive attention to environmental justice throughout the Department of Justice.”
In November, the Justice Department opened a first-of-its-kind environmental justice investigation into the wastewater disposal and infectious illness applications of the Alabama Public Health Department and the Lowndes County Health Department to find out whether or not they’re working the applications in a fashion that discriminates in opposition to Black residents. The majority-Black county lacks a centralized sewage system, and no less than 40 p.c of properties have insufficient or no sewage techniques.
Michael Kosnar contributed.