With the United States facing immense growth of social and political activism following the Trump administration’s implementation and eradication of key policies, the focus on environmental reform, especially regarding environmental equity, has emerged as an important topic of debate. Although scientists, politicians, and activists have all acknowledged the need for change in energy efficiency, water conservation, and climate change policy, one of the country’s greatest threats to achieving full environmental responsibility is the injustice that results from discriminatory action and policy.

In the 1980’s, The U.S. Government Accountability Office claimed sufficient evidence on the relationship between locations of hazardous waste facilities and minorities, noting that hazardous sites are commonly located among minority communities and those in poverty. The NIMBY (“not-in-my-backyard”) principle upheld my wealthier white neighborhoods has often led to the disproportionate placement of waste facilities.

The most well-known modern instance of environmental racism is the Flint water crisis in Michigan, where citizens of the city of Flint complained of lead-contamination in their water. The Michigan Civil Rights Commission determined that “[t]he people of Flint did not enjoy the equal protection of environmental or public health laws, nor did they have a meaningful voice in the decisions leading up to the Flint Water Crisis” (Report of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission 2017). As a result, the Flint Water Crisis has been called a case study of environmental injustice.

In February of this year, the EPA released a study that concluded that emissions of particulate matter, a respiratory irritant and defined carcinogen, are excessively impacting low-income families and people of color. The responsibility to address environmental injustice is directly given to policymakers. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has actively seeked to eliminate regulations that would address issues such as anthropogenic climate change and environmental racism, regardless of consistent outcry from scientists and activists.

Director Leslie Fields of the Sierra Club’s Environmental Justice Program stated, “The Trump administration has even proposed to shutter the EPA’s environmental justice office and end programs that allow for communities to have input on how key clean air and clean energy policies are implemented.” Fields also called out EPA administrator Scott Pruitt: “It’s a travesty that the most vulnerable communities in our country must endure the worst air pollution and its health effects while Trump’s EPA administrator jets around the country in a first class seat, meeting with and encouraging the fossil fuel billionaires responsible for that pollution” (Sierra Club 2018).

This administration has disregarded their responsibilities by implementing policies that neglect the protection of these communities and by continuing to adhere to companies that do not maintain any concern for environmental protection.