{"id":180523,"date":"2025-08-27T19:41:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T19:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/180523\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T19:41:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T19:41:16","slug":"trump-administration-investigates-california-epa-over-diversity-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/180523\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration investigates California EPA over diversity practices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Trump administration on Wednesday announced it is opening an investigation<\/a> into the California Environmental Protection Agency, including the powerful California Air Resources Board, over potentially discriminatory employment practices.<\/p>\n

In a notice addressed<\/a> to CalEPA Secretary Yana Garcia, the Department of Justice said its investigation will determine whether the state agency is \u201cengaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on race, color, sex, and national origin\u201d in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn publicly available guidance documents, CalEPA highlights \u2018hiring, promotion and retention practices and policies\u2019 that indicate it may be using protected characteristics to \u2018advance racial equity,\u2019\u201d the DOJ wrote in a news release<\/a> accompanying the notice. \u201cFurther, CARB, a division of CalEPA, appears to use these policies to engage in discriminatory employment practices in its \u2018Racial Equity Framework,\u2019 which aims to advance race-based decision-making within the agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Trump campaigned in staunch opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, or DEI, which seek to promote fairness and equal representation in workplaces, educational institutions and other organizations. Trump in January signed a flurry of executive orders<\/a> targeting DEI practices in the federal government.<\/p>\n

The items in question include CalEPA\u2019s \u201cPractices to Advance Racial Equity in Workforce Planning<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a 2020 document intended to guide agency officials in equitable hiring, promotion and retention practices and policies. <\/p>\n

The DOJ referenced language in the document that includes applying a \u201cracial equity lens to every phase of workforce development,\u201d to engage in \u201cscreening practices\u201d that account for \u201ccultural competency and lived experience,\u201d and to ensure that interview panels \u201creflect racial, ethnic, gender and other diversity as much as possible,\u201d among other examples.<\/p>\n

\u201cRace-based employment practices and policies in America\u2019s local and state agencies violate equal treatment under the law,\u201d read a statement from Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet K. Dhillon with the DOJ\u2019s Civil Rights Division. \u201cAgencies that unlawfully use protected characteristics as a factor in employment and hiring risk serious legal consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials with CalEPA and CARB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s announcement marks another escalation of the Trump administration\u2019s confrontation with California. In May, Trump signed legislation attempting to nullify the state\u2019s long-held authority to set strict tailpipe emission standards<\/a>, including its plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars in 2035, which prompted a lawsuit from California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta in return.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Justice Department filed two complaints<\/a> in federal court to prevent CARB from enforcing its rules for cleaner light-duty vehicles and heavy-duty trucks. The suits advance the president\u2019s commitment to ending the \u201cthe electric vehicle [EV] mandate,\u201d the DOJ said. <\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly clashed with Gov. Gavin Newsom over environmental issues, including the state\u2019s response to the devastating January wildfires in Los Angeles, and has moved to cancel federal funding for electric vehicle infrastructure<\/a> and California\u2019s high-speed rail<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Newsom administration has filed more than 75 legal actions in opposition to the White House\u2019s efforts, including lawsuits and amicus briefs.<\/p>\n

In its notice, the DOJ said it has not yet reached any conclusions about the subject matter of the investigation and that it intends to consider \u201call relevant information.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration on Wednesday announced it is opening an investigation into the California Environmental Protection Agency, including…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":180524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,101941,276,76723,101942,101940,58379,7414,5022,2961,224,5337,42228,153,16408,101943,50201,101944,4352],"class_list":["post-180523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-calepa-highlight","tag-california","tag-carb","tag-discriminatory-employment-practice","tag-diversity-practice","tag-doj","tag-hiring","tag-investigation","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-notice","tag-policy","tag-racial-equity","tag-retention-practice","tag-state-agency","tag-staunch-opposition","tag-trump-administration"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115102437532428667","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}