Attorney General Tong Issues Guidance Affirming the Legality and Necessity of Environmental Justice Initiatives

Press Releases

06/17/2025

Attorney General Tong Issues Guidance Affirming the Legality and Necessity of Environmental Justice Initiatives

Guidance Clarifies Recent Federal Actions Seeking to Eliminate and Chill Environmental Justice Efforts

(Hartford, CT) —Attorney General William Tong today joined a coalition of 12 other attorneys general issuing multistate guidance affirming the necessity and legality of environmental justice initiatives. The guidance reinforces that despite the Trump Administration’s recent efforts to brand these critical activities as illegal, public and private entities can still lawfully engage in environmental justice work to ensure a healthy environment for all people to live, play, work, learn, and worship.

“There is absolutely nothing unlawful about acknowledging reality and doing something to make it better,” said Attorney General Tong. “The undeniable truth is that certain communities—low-income, people of color, and others—are disproportionately hurt by environmental dangers, including unsafe air, environmental toxins, extreme weather, and more. Our nation and our state have an obligation to act to ensure the health and safety of all families.”

Efforts to Advance Environmental Justice Remain Essential

Environmental justice – which has its roots in our country’s civil, economic, labor, and immigrants’ rights movements – aims to ensure that every person has equal access to clean air; clean water; safe and healthy food; a healthy, sustainable, and stable environment; and protection from the impacts of climate change. Despite over 40 years of progress since the founding of the environmental justice movement, the principles and practices that the Trump Administration has attempted to undermine remain both necessary and urgent. Racial segregation, redlining, and disinvestment have all laid the foundation for persistent environmental and public health disparities.

Evidence-based studies and lived experience demonstrate that communities of color, indigenous people and tribal nations, low-income, rural, and unincorporated communities, people with disabilities, and non-English speaking communities routinely face disproportionate environmental and health burdens. From lead-poisoning to pollution-related asthma in children, to the presence of waste dumping and contaminated sites, and excessive car and truck traffic, to extreme temperatures, flooding and wildfires, over-burdened communities face formidable barriers to their well-being and opportunities.

These challenges are exacerbated by climate change, which is causing environmental dangers that lead to greater instability, economic hardship, and shortened life spans. Environmental justice initiatives aim to overcome this division, developing solutions to persistent harms and advancing public health, safety, well-being, and prosperity across communities.

Recent Federal Actions Do Not Impact the Legality of Environmental Justice Efforts

Since day one, the Trump Administration has issued Executive Orders and memoranda attempting to undermine environmental justice, a longstanding federal policy. The Administration has terminated environmental and climate justice programs and grants; discontinued environmental enforcement actions; and called for legal challenges to state environmental justice and climate laws. These actions distort the meaning and attempt to cast doubt on the legality of environmental justice work.

The President cannot change or dismantle laws passed by Congress, nor can his Executive Orders or agency memoranda change the protections afforded by the U.S. Constitution and other federal and state laws. In fact, civil rights and environmental laws support public and private efforts to advance environmental justice, as does the U.S. Constitution.

The guidance is directed to the country, state, tribal, and local governments, nonprofit and charitable entities, businesses, and neighborhood-based groups that are currently engaging in efforts to restore and protect environmental and public health with solutions that are informed and improved by the lived experiences of thousands of communities. Through its guidance, the coalition stands ready to implement and enforce the nation’s laws to advance environmental justice and will continue working in collaboration with communities and organizations to support and defend these efforts across the country.

Co-led by the attorneys general of Massachusetts, California, and New York, Attorney General Tong is joined in issuing this guidance with the attorneys general of Arizona, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Oregon.

Assistant Attorney General Jill Lacedonia and Deputy Associate Attorney General Matthew Levine assisted the Attorney General in this matter.

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