by Michael Albalah

Here are the parts of Joe Biden’s environmental justice plan that could positively affect race-based environmental injustice and rely only executive branch powers:

First, he would direct executive agencies (i.e. the EPA) to pursue environmental crimes to the fullest extent of the law.

Next, he would fully utilize the 1994 Executive Order 12898 (EO 12898) on Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations by elevating the EPA’s environmental justice groups into the White House as the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council.  They would report directly to the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality who reports directly to the President.  Their mandate would be to collaborate with local environmental justice leaders to address current and historic environmental injustice and revise EO 12898.  Both the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council would publish an annual public performance score-card on EO 12898’s implementation.

Additionally, he would create an Environmental and Climate Justice Division within the Department of Justice.  This division, as proposed by Governor Inslee, would complement the work of the Environment and Natural Resources Division. The President would instruct the Attorney General to use the division to implement to the greatest extent possible, Senator Booker’s Environmental Justice Act of 2019, to increase enforcement, to strategically support ongoing plaintiff-driven climate litigation against polluters, and work hand-in-hand with EPA’s Office of Civil Rights.  We will be covering this proposal closely.

Lastly, the administration would remobilize the EPA External Civil Rights Compliance Office to execute its requirements under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In particular, it would rescind the EPA’s decision in Select Steel and its Angelita C. and conduct a rulemaking and open a public comment process to seek Americans’ input on agency guidance for investigating Title VI Administrative complaints.