Capping off Earth Week 2023, President Biden on Friday signed an executive order expanding the Administration’s Justice40 Initiative and creating a new White House Office of Environmental Justice.

The Executive Order, titled Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All, expands and provides additional clarity to the Biden Administration’s environmental justice commitment. According to a White House fact sheet distributed on Friday, the order is intended “to ensure that all people – regardless of race, background, income, ability, Tribal affiliation, or zip code – can benefit from the vital safeguards enshrined in our nation’s foundational environmental and civil rights laws.” The order addresses this commitment through various means:

• Embedding the Administration’s “Whole of Government” approach to Environmental Justice.

The Order makes clear that the pursuit of environmental justice should be incorporated into the missions of all executive branch agencies. It also adds agencies to the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council, a body tasked in part with developing federal agency performance metrics and publishing an annual public performance scorecard (more on that below).

Notably, the Order directs agencies to consider measures that will address and prevent “disproportionate and adverse” impacts on health and the environment, contrasting the prior “disproportionately high and adverse” requirement established by Executive Order 12898 signed by President Clinton on February 11, 1994. The Administration describes this change as “eliminat[ing] potential misunderstanding that agencies should only be considering large disproportionate effects” which will likely lead to increased federal agency scrutiny as projects under their purview meet this lower threshold.

• Enhancing Community Engagement.

The Order requires federal agencies to notify nearby communities in the event of a release of toxic substances from a federal facility. This notification includes holding a public hearing to share information on any resulting health risks or necessary precautions. The Order also directs federal agencies to “actively facilitate meaningful public participation and just treatment of all people in agency decision-making.” This includes Tribal consultation and strengthening nation-to-nation relationships on environmental justice issues.

Federal agencies are also required to submit to the White House Council on Environmental Quality and make available to the public an Environmental Justice Strategic Plan. Agencies will use the plan to set forth goals and actions to advance environmental justice, and identify oversight opportunities to improve accountability and compliance with any statute administered by that agency that affects communities with environmental justice concerns. The Order requires that this plan be submitted no later than 18 months after the date of the Order, and every 4 years thereafter.

• Launching a new White House Office of Environmental Justice.

The new Office of Environmental Justice will be located within the White House Council on Environmental Quality and be led by the Federal Chief Environmental Justice Officer. The office will be tasked with coordinating the implementation of environmental justice policies across federal government agencies.

• Creating a new Environmental Justice Subcommittee within the National Science and Technology Council.

This new subcommittee, led by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, will be tasked with coordinating a strategy for federal agencies to identify and fill gaps in data and research relating to environmental justice in part to aid in advancing cumulative impact analyses. Filling in these data gaps will allow agencies to use science to better address adverse health and environmental impacts. The Committee will be required to update this Environmental Justice Science, Data, and Research Plan every two years.

• Publication of the Inaugural Federal Agency Environmental Justice Scorecard and Draft National Strategy on Preventing Plastic Pollution.

While not part of the Executive Order, the White House unveiled a first-of-its-kind environmental justice scorecard for federal agencies. Developed by the Office of Management and Budget, the Council on Environmental Quality, and the United States Digital Service, the scorecard assesses 24 federal agencies’ environmental justice advancement efforts, including efforts to advance the Administration’s Justice40 initiative. This initiative is designed to ensure that 40 percent of federal funding investments flow to communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution. Similarly, Friday’s announcement referenced the addition of the Department of Commerce, the National Science Foundation, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration programs to the Justice40 initiative, bringing the total number of programs covered by the initiative to 470 across 19 federal agencies.

The White House also announced a new Interagency Policy Committee on Plastic Pollution and a Circular Economy, alongside a draft National Strategy on Preventing Plastic Pollution released the same day by the U.S. EPA. The draft strategy plan is intended to address disparate impacts on communities affected by plastic from production to waste. The Committee, meanwhile, will coordinate federal efforts addressing plastic pollution to ensure an equitable distribution of the benefit from these efforts.

In a time when the Biden Administration faces increased scrutiny regarding its environmental efforts, the White House’s announcement also highlights various actions undertaken by executive agencies during the current presidential term. Friday’s action marks the latest installment in the Biden Administration’s advancement of environmental justice initiatives, following Executive Order 13990 signed on President Biden’s first day in office, and Executive Order 14008 signed soon thereafter on January 27, 2021. The White House states that Friday’s Order reflects the goals and recommendations of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, demonstrating the active approach that council continues to take in this area. The Order underscores the Administration’s commitment to developing environmental justice initiatives at the federal level, entrenching those initiatives into the goals of executive agencies, and providing transparency to the public on how those goals are being achieved.

We will continue to monitor this and other federal environmental justice developments on the Corporate Environmental Lawyer.

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