One of the new administration's most ambitious goals is to reorient federal policymaking to prioritize environmental justice. President Biden signed Executive Order 14008 on January 27 to "secure environmental justice and spur economic opportunity for disadvantaged communities that have been historically marginalized and overburdened by pollution and under investment." Many applauded the administrations swift and comprehensive commitment, including Robert Bullard, known as "the father of environmental justice," who said the president's "all in one" approach is an "advancement in accepting what environmental justice really is." Bullard believes the order "sends a clear message that at the highest level of government, these actions will be taken seriously." Yet he along with many other advocates of what in this article we'll call EJ acknowledge that the road ahead will not be easy.If the administration is to execute on EO 14008, it will have to confront data and programmatic gaps in the government's ability to identify and map EJ communities, assess the cumulative impacts of proposed government actions, and make EJ an enforcement priority. This article addresses the key challenges to accomplishing the administration's stated goal and identifies discrete actions that the government could take to update its EJ data collection capabilities; establish EJ as a key component of environmental enforcement strategy; and incorporate EJ criteria into siting, rulemaking, and permitting.
展开▼
