By Donovan McNeal
Howard University News Service
Environmental issues are coming to a head as activists and Democratic lawmakers increasingly join forces to fight cuts by the Trump administration that impact clean air and water, how natural disasters are handled and jobs. From protests and briefings to private meetings and interviews, they are making their voices heard.
A major issue is the decision to minimize the offices and employees of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Elon Musk, director of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), recently placed 168 employees in the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and Civil Rights on administrative leave.
This pause followed President Trump’s executive order titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government D.E.I. Programs and Preferencing.” The president declared that the environmental justice office falls into this category.
“They don’t want to make America great again; they want to make America hate again,” Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey said at a press conference outside EPA headquarters organized with the Climate Action Campaign, a coalition of environmental justice groups, to protest the EPA layoffs.
Freezing EPA funds is unconstitutional and illegal, according to Markey, who has focused on environmental, energy and telecommunications policy during his half-century in Congress.
Rosa Delauro, a ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement that the administration’s funding freeze is “likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of the country.”
Eric Bunn, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 7,500 EPA employees, announced that the federation was able to get a temporary restraining order on the “fork in the road proposal from the Trump administration.”
Bunn informed union members that their employment status is on hold until the “battle is fought in the courts.”
In addition to the question of legality, Markey alleged that slashing funds of federal agencies like the EPA is taking away clean water and air, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act while allowing tax breaks for the rich.
Notably, Elon Musk, the wealthiest person in the world, and many other billionaires have publicly endorsed the Trump administration. Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook and Shou Zi Chew were all present at the inauguration ceremony.
They don’t want to make America great again; they want to make America hate again.”
— Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey
During the EPA briefing, other members of Congress echoed Markey’s cry for the restoration of the federal employees’ positions. Speakers included New York Reps. Paul Tonko and Jerrold Nadler, California Rep. Luz Rivas and Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari.
Ansari talked about the importance of her district collaborating with the EPA, because of the immense amount of pollution and increasing heat in the area.
Phoenix, the seat of Maricopa County, experienced its hottest summer ever last year with an average monthly temperature of 97 degrees. At least 295 people in the county died of heat-related causes.
The Rev. Lennox Yearwood, president of the Hip Hop Caucus, also called for clean water and air for all citizens. Furthermore, he noted that reductions in federal oversight could exacerbate natural disasters and that such tragedies outweigh the political agendas of the Democratic and Republican parties.
Yearwood reflected on the two-year anniversary this month of the vinyl chloride train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which caused seven deaths and left lasting pollution in the community. He recalls seeing people wearing both progressive and MAGA hats when he visited the area.
“What’s interesting about a disaster is that when disasters happen you forget about your political background,” he pointed out. “You just want to be human and ensure you’re taken care of.”
Yearwood also referenced this phenomenon occurring in the L.A wildfires that caused mass destruction earlier this year. With at least 29 deaths, thousands of evacuations, 50,000 burned acres, the financial toll of the wildfires is an estimated $250 billion to $275 billion in damage, according to economic expert Roberto Duncan, Ph.D.
Howard University News Service spoke with Mustafa Santiago Ali, the former head of EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice, to get his perspective on the potential closure.
Ali reemphasized the importance of maintaining this office. “We’ve got over a million people in our country who are living in areas that often have unhealthy and unsafe air,” said Ali, who is now executive vice president for the National Wildlife Federation. “We need people with expertise to address these issues, especially in our most vulnerable communities where people are most impacted.”
As of 2023, about 140 million people nationwide lived in counties with pollution levels above the primary National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), according to EPA data.
During his first term, President Trump said he planned to have the cleanest air and water in the world.
However, the country with the highest-rated global Environmental Performance Index (EPI) as of 2024 is Estonia, according to “The Air We Breathe” by the World Population Review.
Ali talked about how this goal will become harder to achieve if the EPA is limited.
“So, if you said those are the things that [you] want to make sure happen, then you have a strong EPA, and you have a strong Office of Environmental Justice to be able to make sure the most vulnerable communities are no longer dumping grounds or sacrifice zones.”
Despite the possibility of the environmental justice office closing and more EPA employee cuts, Ali believes that the work of the EPA will persist.
“Environmental justice will always live, because environmental justice is of and by the people,” he said. “So just because you scrub it off of a website does not stop it from living; it is still a living breathing set of work.”
Donovan McNeal covers environmental and energy issues for HUNewsService.com.
