Indiana Gov. Mike Braun’s latest executive order eliminating environmental justice protections is sparking concern in communities like Gary, a city long plagued by industrial pollution. Environmental advocates warn that gutting oversight will leave vulnerable residents with fewer safeguards against toxic emissions and hazardous waste.
Earlier this week, Braun signed an executive order eliminating “environmental justice” as a consideration when issuing permits or grants, saying that the term has been “increasingly politicized.” The move aligns with the Trump administration’s broader rollbacks of U.S. environmental protections and follows the EPA’s decision to dismantle its environmental justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion offices.
“The State of Indiana believes that the focus of environmental permitting and enforcement decisions should be on the protection of public health, natural resources, and economic growth without favoring or disadvantaging any group based on race, ethnicity, or other social criteria,” Braun’s executive order stated.
While Braun framed his legislation as a way to maintain neutrality in the decision-making process, Gary Advocates for Responsible Development, an environmental watchdog organization in the city, warns that eliminating oversight sends a clear message to polluters: Some communities are expendable.
“Shutting the EPA’s Offices of Environmental Justice is a direct attack on cities like Gary and essentially signals to industry that there are ‘sacrifice’ cities where they can do whatever they want,” said GARD Secretary Carolyn McCrady.
The move comes as President Donald Trump has vowed to slash the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget, fueling fears that already vulnerable cities like Gary, a nearly 80% Black community with a legacy of pollution, could face even fewer safeguards.
“The country is going to see more people with asthma, cancer, lung diseases, and heart problems. This will be especially true in the communities like Gary that already suffer from being overburdened with air, land, and water pollution,” said GARD President Dorreen Carey.
A 2024 national toxic emissions report by Industrious Labs found that low-income communities of color living near steel mills like Gary Works face cancer rates 12% higher due to air toxic exposure. The report also found that Gary residents are in the top 10% in the nation to develop asthma due to the release of toxic pollutants like benzene and lead from manufacturing plants.
In a 2022 letter to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the EPA called Gary an “environmental justice city” citing the majority-Black area’s burden and exposure to hazardous air pollutants. Local advocates have used agency resources, like EJScreen, to challenge hazardous projects, including Maya Energy’s trash facility and Fulcrum Bioenergy’s waste-to-jet-fuel plant.
Alan Walts, director of the EPA’s environmental justice division for Region 5, which includes Gary and Chicago, spoke with Capital B Gary last year on the significance of the office’s work. For the past five decades, Walts said, the EPA has made strides in studying the effects of harmful pollutants, and through its environmental justice division, it has applied that research to support communities disproportionately affected by them.
“What environmental justice highlights for EPA is we, as an agency, have to do business in a way that is more focused on communities,” he said.
“We have to understand systemic impacts. We have to understand the multiplicity of stressors, and we have to get better at working together to solve systemic challenges,” Walts said, adding that it is essential to collaborate with community partners, like GARD, and other governmental units for it to work effectively.
GARD warns that without safeguards from the EPA, environmentally vulnerable cities like Gary will be at increased risk if the agency follows through on its plan to gut regulations that limit toxic emissions, address climate change, and protect the country’s most vulnerable communities.
“Cities like Gary will have to become even more vigilant to protect their residents. Our health and the future of our community is at stake,” McCrady said.