EPA Racial Justice Plan Has Interestingly Timed Debut

He probably gave several, actually, but we're going to hone in on just one because it reveals a lot about how he and his agency think about racial justice and maybe even about how the president is trying to win reelection this fall. Hello, and welcome back once again to Parts per Billion, the environmental podcast from Bloomberg Law. I'm your host, David Schultz. So, Andrew Wheeler gives a ton

of speeches all the time. He's a member of the president's cabinet, so that's kind of just part of the job. But last week he spoke in California about an issue that's been at the top of many of our minds recently, racial justice. In this speech, Wheeler talked about how the EPA under both his and previous administrations hasn't done enough to address issues of environmental justice. Those are environmental problems that disproportionately affect people with low incomes and people of color.

He also laid out a big five point plan to reorient several EPA programs to correct these historical mistakes. The topic of the speech was notable enough by itself, but the timing, just two months before the elections, of course, can't be ignored. To break all this down for us, we brought in Bloomberg Laws Stephen Lee. Stephen covered the rollout of Wheeler's environmental Justice plan, and he started off

by explaining exactly what environmental justice is. Environmental justice or EJ is a movement to fix policies that have really, for decades been disproportionately harmful to the air, water, and land in low income community of color. Those are the neighborhoods where you know, factories and landfills and power plants, toxic dump sites, highways you know tend to be built.

And EJ activists essentially just want fair treatment. They want a seat at the table in decision making, and but most of all, they want that stuff to be cleaned up. It's not a new thing. This movement has been alive for generations. There've always been people who have built grassroots coalitions and petitioned the government and stage nonviolent protests, you know, in their communities. They have historically borrowed a lot of the same tactics that were used in the civil rights

movement in the sixties. But I think it's fair to say that given the national attention that is being paid to racism in this country right now, after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and so many others, that EJA leaders, I think see an opportunity to make some real progress and get some things done now. But I think that's a great point because it's not necessarily intuitive.

I think you think, oh, we all breathe the air, we all drink the water, so if there's pollution in the air, this pollution in the water, it affects everyone. But what EJ activists environmental justice activists have been saying for a long time is that, no, it actually doesn't affect everyone. The burdens of pollution are disproportionately felt by people of color and people who have low income. Yeah, you know, It's worth noting also that there is kind

of a chicken and egg problem here. It's like, Okay, do companies build polluting facilities in low income communities because that's where land is cheap, or do low income folks tend to move to those places with polluting facilities because that's what they can afford. You know, sometimes these two dynamics kind of blend together. But either way, to your point, there is I think clear evidence that those community these do suffer worst environmental impacts and have for a really

long time. Yeah. And just as an example of this, this is something that we've talked about before on the podcast, but the vast majority of superfund sites, which are the most polluted sites in the country, are located very very close to public housing. That was a stat that was unearthed by our colleague Sylvia Kargdan. And it's as an example of, you know, one of the sort of premier environmental justice issues. Yeah, I think that's right. Super fun sites.

And also one thing that you hear a lot about is you know, like transportation stuff, big highways, highway interchanges. You don't see those kinds of beautiful highways going through, you know, the lush landscape of like Westchester County in New York, right, exactly, it tends to be in you know, poor communities of color. That's where they build that stuff. So let's get to Andrew Wheeler. He's the head of the EPA, appointed by President Trump a few years ago.

He recently gave a speech where he was talking about his thoughts on environmental justice and what the EPA needs to do. And based on your reporting, it sounded like he almost struck a self critical tone, which is surprising from any cabinet official in any administration, but especially this one. Am I right? Was he a little bit self critical about what the EPA has done on EJ under his tenure? Yeah? I think a little bit. I mean I did not hear Wheeler say that the Trump EPA specifically has done

a bad job on EJ. What I heard him say was that the EPA as an institution historically hasn't handled it in the right way. Going back many years now, you will hear lots and lots of EJ activists who will say that the Trump EPA has failed in ways that previous administrations have not, and that things have gotten worse for them under President Trump. But I didn't hear Wheeler himself take on the blame and say, you know, we the Trump EPA have fallen down on the job.

But you're right. Just the acknowledgment that you know, my administration and the one before that and the one before that, you know, have really not done enough on this issue is is, I think a unique statement in and of itself. Yeah, he said that, you know, we need to do a better job, and not just the EPA, but the entire kind of machinery of the federal government needs to do a better job of, you know, taking care of these

racial disparities. And but that this is as I say, this is a problem that's been going on for a long time, and he's got a plan that he laid out to get better. We're going to take a quick break now, but when we get back, we'll talk about whether Wheeler's speech served double duty as a campaign rally for his boss. Stay with us. We're back and we're talking with Bloomberg Lass Stephen Lee about Andrew Wheeler's new

five point plan to address environmental justice issues. Stephen went into exactly what is in this plan and what it would do. He laid out five things in his speech last week. Okay, Number one creating a community driven environmentalism that promotes community revitalization. Number two, meeting the twenty first century demands for water, number three, reimagining Superfund as a project oriented program, for reforming the permitting process to empower states.

And five creating a holistic pesticide program for the future. The part about being holistic was one of the real core themes of his address. You know, it was a little bit light on specifics. Maybe that's because this was kind of a big picture, sort of State of the Union type speech, But what I heard broadly was that the federal government and the EPA, you know, in over the next four years, is going to reorganize the way it works with communities in a broad way that doesn't

just address spot fixes here and there. You know, he gave the example of an EJ community that fixes its air attainment but still has led in the water pipes and schools. Right, So he wants to coordinate with communities to in some way kind of attack the broad sort of systemic problems that a community is facing all sources of pollution, not just you know, one at a time.

I think that's right. Yeah, I get the sense that environmental activists, and specifically environmental justice activists weren't really you know, bowled over by this address you quoted one of them is calling his speech Orwellian. Tell me about their reaction. What don't they like about what the administrator here is proposing. I think the thing about Orwellian was a reference to kind of like double speak. Sure, yeah, you know, you're right. It's not going over well at all among EJ folks.

I talked to a lot of them after the speech, and they pretty much all said they find it hypocritical for Wheeler to make these kinds of claims given the EPA's record over the last four years. They point to a long list of rollbacks right that the Trump EPA has undertaken, everything from mercury emissions from power plants to methane leaks from gas pipelines to going outside the EPA,

the rollbacks of the National Environmental Policy Act. And that's something that underprivileged communities have relied on very heavily to have a voice in the construction of highways and bridges and transmission lines and all sorts of things that can be really harmful to their communities. So, you know, based on that track record, they just simply do not believe

that these are now priority issues. And others have said that the promises that were laid out in the speech were you know, quite vague, and so how do we know that these grand promises are going to become a reality.

On the other hand, Wheelers' supporters will say that the best way you can help EJ communities is by giving people jobs, and that has been a big priority with the Trump administration, right to to you know, get environmental regulations out of the way of businesses, and to you know, give them more flexibility to do what they need to do or want to do right lift people out of poverty. That's the way that you really can help these these

people who are struggling with a pollution. And I think it's also true that, you know, look, agencies, priorities can evolve even if something hasn't been high on the to do list in the past, that doesn't mean it still can't be an aspirational goal going forward. Finally, though, let's talk about the timing of this speech that the administrator gave. We are about two months away from the elections in November. I know, cabinet officials, you know, aren't really supposed to

sort of campaign for their bosses. But do you think there was some element here of Andrew Wheeler maybe trying to sway some voters in urban areas or in low income or ethnic communities to maybe sort of vote for his boss. I mean, is there any indication that played into this. That's a tricky one. I've been thinking about that. I mean, you know, first of all, there is this narrative that voters of color almost universally are not with President Trump, So what's the point in trying to reach

out to those communities? Right? But I think that's a bit of an oversimplification. I mean, there is polling out there that shows that I think about ten percent of the black population and like a third up to a third of Hispanic voters identify as Republicans, and that has been stable over time. So I mean, look, who knows how accurate that polling is. But the point is it's not as though Trump can afford to completely ignore those people.

I heard also a theory from an environmentalist that the promises that Andrew Wheeler laid out are away for the Trump administration to give a kind of, you know, permission to either unmotivated voters or undecided voters, if there are any left to support the president, you know, it's he was talking about voters who maybe they're undecided or they're not sure if they're going to vote, but they care

about the environment, they care about racial justice. They want to be able to vote for President Trump without feeling as though they're violating their principles. So maybe Wheeler's speech carved out a lane for them to do that. That was his theory, not mine. But you know, look, the thing is, as I mentioned, we tend not to think that there are a whole lot of voters out there who don't yet know whether they're in the Trump camp or the Biden camp, and for whom these remarks could

tip the scales well. And the other thing that I thought about when I read your story and I saw the speech, and this is again very speculative. We're kind of trying to get in decide Andrew Wheeler's head here, so you know, take this with a grain of salt.

But the other thing I thought about is that, you know, it's possible that President Trump may lose the election, in which case Andrew Wheeler would no longer be the head of the EPA, or it's possible that you know, Trump may win reelection and decide to go with a new administrator for his second term. If that's the case, Andrew Wheeler has to be thinking about his legacy and how people will remember him as the head of the EPA.

Do you think that this speech and this type of initiative is a part of his thinking about I want to sort of bolster my legacy before I may leave office here. I wonder about that. You know, Andrew Wheeler is like a relatively young guy. He's he's going to continue to work after he leaves the EPA. I'm I think it is fair to say that, you know, nobody wants to be on record as having done nothing in this kind of Black Lives Matter or a moment like you want to have something on your resume that shows

that you did take action. And on a somewhat unrelated point, you know, the EPA does say that they have since the killing of George Floyd, they have done a lot of internal training and a lot of sort of soul searching, if you like, about their kind of internal policies and how how they as an organization need to respond to this moment. So I don't know. I mean, it's it's

it's a possibility. I've also heard people say, you know, supporters of this administration, that Andrew Wheeler is a guy that cares about you know, racial and justice and environmental justice, and he has for a long time, and so you have to take him at his word. When he says that he wants to do better for these communities, he means it, and that'll do it. For today's episode of Parspervillion. If you want more environmentally news, check out our website

Newstop Bloomberg environment dot com. That website, once again is newst Bloomberg environment dot com. Today's episode of Parspabillion was produced by myself and Josh Block. Parsperbillion was created by Jessica Coombs and Rachel Daegel. The music for today's episode is a Message by Jazarre and Road to Memphis by Paul Bouchara and Emmanuel Jambonnet. They were used under a

Creative Commons license. Thank you for listening. The killers of Berta Cassras had every reason to believe they'd get away with murder. Her work as an environmental activist won her the admiration of celebrities in California, politicians in Washington, and the indigenous communities she worked alongside in Honduras. It also earned her powerful enemies. On a new podcast from Bloomberg Green, Blood River follows a four year quest to find Bertica

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