The EPA's Environmental Justice Office

I came across an interview today between Yale Environment 360 and the head of the EPA's Environmental Justice Office, Matthew Tejada. Before joining the EPA, Mr. Tejada led a group called Air Alliance Houston. The group is a grass-roots organization in Texas that seeks to fight air pollution from refineries, chemical plants, and the shipping industry along the Gulf Coast. I found the interview interesting because it is often said that while the EPA has an Office of Environmental Justice, the office is small and maybe not that effective. The agency has a reputation that it, like the big green organizations, often forgets the human element in environmental issues. Instead, environmental efforts tend to focus on nature, protecting trees and wildlife, and regulating industry based on scientific criteria that fails to take into account the cumulative effects of pollution on already overburdened communities.

The EPA's addition of Mr. Tejada to its Office of Environmental Justice illustrates, I think, the agency's commitment to environmental justice issues. Mr. Tejada will bring a needed perspective to the table as one who has dealt with environmental justice at the ground level. He will be able to relate the hardships and actual effects polluting industries have on communities of low-income and minority populations. I think his appointment is a good thing...a very good thing.

You can find the interview here: http://e360.yale.edu/feature/interview_with_epa_environmental_justice_director_matthew_tejada/2627/