EPA Administrator Michael Regan on Friday touted the Biden administration’s push to aid marginalized communities long saddled with pollution, including recent major regulations launched by his agency.
Regan, speaking at the convention for civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in New York, pointed to EPA’s final rule dealing with cancer-linked air pollutants from industrial sites as well as his agency’s relief for areas, often of color and low-income. President Joe Biden is gearing up for his reelection campaign, and support from minority voters will be key if he is to win the White House again.
“When I say I am committed to environmental justice, that is because the remit is coming from the president of the United States,” Regan said, noting Biden has mentioned the cause in his State of the Union address twice now.
Regan recalled his past tour of “Cancer Alley,” a swath of land in Louisiana on the Mississippi River chock full of chemical plants and oil refineries. EPA’s rule released this week would curb emissions of ethylene oxide and chloroprene as well as expand fence-line monitoring to track pollution wafting into nearby communities.
