EPA Administrator Michael Regan Follows Up Journey to Justice Tour with Real Actions

Houston (Jan. 26, 2022) – Two months after his Journey to Justice Tour across the South, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan announced the first in a series of actions responding directly to concerns of residents in communities historically and disproportionately impacted by pollution. The actions are part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government approach to addressing these issues in communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution. “These are really important steps,” said Robert D. Bullard, director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University and a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. Bullard has spent more than four decades writing and documenting the disproportionate effects of pollution on communities of color in the U.S. 

It's important that administrator kicked off his tour in the South—the same region that birthed the modern civil rights movement and the environmental justice movement. The South is also the most environmentally befouled region in the country and has a unique history of resisting civil rights and equal environmental protection—as documented in Dumping in Dixie more than three decades ago. Even EPA’s own research found people of color, indigenous people and poor people are still disproportionately impacted by pollution dumping. “We’ve had incremental change and we’ve had ups and downs when it comes to environmental justice at the federal level. But the arc of the universe right now is bending toward justice. We have to make sure the proposed EPA actions are carried out and the required funding follows need,” said Bullard. 

EPA announced specific actions in each of the areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas that the administrator visited on the tour and outlined a series of broad policy actions.  To view the EPA News Release click HERE.