Epa Officials Urge Continued Agency Focus On Environmental Justice

摘要

Top EPA officials are preparing advisory documents for the new administration outlining the importance of embedding environmental justice issues in the agency's day-to-day operations and working to ensure that environmental justice concerns remain an agency priority. Speaking at the biannual meeting of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) here Oct. 22-23, EPA enforcement chief Granta Nakayama argued for greater institutionalization of environmental justice within EPA and emphasized the need for quantitative tools and established processes to ensure the agency continues to focus on environmental justice issues regardless of who is the next president. But community-based NEJAC members expressed concerns that the federal bureaucracy would remain an obstacle to real progress in environmental justice and said keeping a grassroots voice in play was essential to the continued health of the movement. Nakayama said the agency's Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) is preparing advisory documents for the new EPA administrator that are intended to emphasize the importance of environmental justice program and NEJAC. Nakayama added that he is optimistic that some institutionalizations will remain, such as EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson's June memo requiring all regional offices and national program managers to consider environmental justice impacts beginning in fiscal year 2009.