EPA Faces Calls To Clarify, Broaden Scope Of Environmental Justice Plan

摘要

States, environmentalists and utilities are generally backing EPA's "final draft" Environmental Justice 2020 Action Agenda (EJ 2020) to bolster consideration of equity in agency decisions, but advocates want a stricter plan while state and utility groups say the effort should more clearly spell out the actions EPA expects them to take. EPA proposed its EJ 2020 plan after environmentalists heavily criticized a draft framework for the effort as only distantly connected to the 1965 Civil Rights Act and lacking enforceable components. Stakeholder comments on the "final" proposal released in June praise the agency for improving on the 2015 framework, but call for a new round of improvements to either strengthen or clarify its EJ agenda.