For three decades, EPA offices were established nationwide to address the disproportionately

high levels of pollution in poor and minority communities.

Now, the Trump administration is eliminating these environmental justice offices as part of its

effort to end DEI programs and to cut what it sees as wasteful spending.

Ali Rogan recently spoke with Andalala Jasa, who covers environmental health for the Washington Post.

Amdala, thank you so much for joining us.

First of all, let's talk about the history of the environmental justice movement, and how did it

become a part of what the EPA does?

Yeah, the history of the environmental justice movement really recognizes the fact that everybody

deserves access to clean air, water, and the land that they live on, right?

And that was really introduced into the government over 30 years ago by Bill Clinton.

He recognized the fact that these inequities needed to be addressed at the government level because it wasn't happening elsewhere.

It developed 30 years ago, but folks really felt like their voices were heard under the Biden administration.

You know, although some of them felt like the administration didn't go far enough in the legislation that they did pass to make sure that they had cleaner,

air and water. They felt like for the first time the risks that they faced were really acknowledged.

What are some specific examples of environmental justice policies at work and the types of problems

that this office set out to address?

Some of the policies at work really limited the amount of pollution that industry would be

able to pump into the air, the soot that would be allowed to linger in the air, other specific

chemicals that they really went after, benzene and other things that for folks who live in Cancer

Alley, that's a day-to-day reality for that.

And tell us about Cancer Alley. What is that?

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