Environmental Justice Official at EPA Steps Down, Decrying Proposed Cuts

Mustafa Ali, head of the environmental justice program at the Environmental Protection Agency, announced that he is stepping down from his position after 24 years. According to Inside Climate News, Ali penned a long letter to Scott Pruitt, the new administrator of the EPA, urging him "not to kill the agency’s programs."

The White House and Pruitt have proposed a budget for the EPA that would cut the agency’s budget by $2 billion and eliminate 20 percent of the workforce, including the entire Office of Environmental Justice. In his letter, Ali suggests the budget cuts will specifically harm those most in need of help, saying that the agency’s new leadership hasn't given "any indication that they are focused or interested in helping those vulnerable communities.”

Prior to his appointment by President Donald Trump, Pruitt had long been considered an adversary of the EPA, working with fossil fuel companies to take legal action against the agency on claims that its regulations exceeded its legal authority.

“I have worked with a number of administrations over the years. I have not had a conversation with [the current administration]," Ali told the New Republic. "I was not asked to brief the transition team. I have not been asked to engage with the new administrator. No one has officially said my position is not going to be continued. But sometimes you can read the writing on the walls.”

In his more than two decades at the EPA, Ali helped to found the environmental justice office, and advised both Republican and Democratic administrations on issues related to pollution’s impact on poor and minority communities, reports the Washington Post. Ali also helped to shape the “EJ 2020 Action Agenda” — one of the last major EPA initiatives of the Obama administration — which would direct more resources to communities affected by pollution and emphasize environmental justice in the agencies policy-making efforts.

Ali has already taken a new position as senior vice president at the Hip Hop Caucus, a nonprofit committed to engaging young people in grassroots activism.

Read more here.