On Earth Day, President Biden signed an executive order making environmental justice — the fair treatment of all people in the development and enforcement of environmental policies — part of the everyday work of federal agencies. The president also launched an Office of Environmental Justice within the White House Council on Environmental Quality to coordinate the implementation of environmental justice policy.
“For far too long, communities across our country have faced persistent environmental injustice through toxic pollution, under-investment in infrastructure and critical services, and other disproportionate environmental harms often due to a legacy of racial discrimination including redlining,” said the White House. “These communities with environmental justice concerns face even greater burdens due to climate change.”
The White House also released an environmental justice scorecard to measure progress by federal departments and agencies. The scorecard said 65 USDA programs and $7 billion in funding in fiscal 2022 were covered by the administration’s Justice40 Initiative. The initiative has a goal of seeing that 40 percent of funding in specified programs, such as climate change, clean energy and affordable housing, “reach disadvantaged communities that are marginalized and overburdened by pollution and underinvestment.” The USDA budget was $222 billion in fiscal 2022.
A White House fact sheet on the executive order on environmental justice is available here.
The executive order on environmental justice is available here.