Biden Admin Boosts Environmental Justice: Clean Air, Water

President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that every person has a right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live in a healthy community - now and into the future. During his first week in office, President Biden launched the most ambitious environmental justice agenda in our nation's history. Today, at the first-ever White House Summit on Environmental Justice in Action, the Biden-Harris Administration released detailed progress reports from 24 federal agencies showcasing how the President is delivering for communities that have faced longstanding environmental injustices and inequities.

The second annual Environmental Justice Scorecard describes the impacts and benefits of more than $600 billion in federal investments that President Biden has secured over Fiscal Years 2022-2027, including through his Investing in America agenda, for programs that are part of the Justice40 Initiative. The goal of the President's Justice40 Initiative is to deliver 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.

The federal agency updates released today outline how these investments - along with new regulatory protections, stronger enforcement of environmental laws, and environmental justice reforms across government - are resulting in cleaner air and water, more affordable clean energy, good-paying jobs, and other real-world benefits that people are experiencing today and will continue to experience for decades to come.

In addition to highlighting the unprecedented progress on environmental justice that has been made over three and a half years under President Biden's leadership, the Administration has in recent days - as part of its fifth Investing in America tour - announced nearly $5 billion in funding awards from programs covered by the Justice40 Initiative. These include the following:

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced over $4.3 billion in Climate Pollution Reduction Grants to implement community-driven solutions that tackle the climate crisis, reduce air pollution, advance environmental justice, and accelerate America's clean energy transition.

• The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced $19 million in new grant and loan awards under its Green and Resilient Retrofit Program after announcing more than $142 million last month, bringing the total funding awarded under this program to more than $773 million. This funding supports significant energy efficiency and climate resilience renovations in more than 4,200 homes at properties housing low-income individuals, families, and seniors bringing the total number of homes supported under this program to over 20,000.

• The Department of the Interior (DOI) awarded $20 million in funding to Alabama to address dangerous and polluting abandoned mine lands, create good-paying, family-sustaining jobs, and catalyze economic opportunity across the state. With this announcement, DOI has now awarded over $1.4 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to states to remediate abandoned mine lands.

• Tomorrow, EPA will announce the first round of Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants Program selections, the single largest investment in environmental justice ever to go directly to communities. These selections will advance collaborative efforts to achieve a healthier, safer, and more prosperous future for all. EPA has made $2 billion available and organizations are encouraged to apply for awards by November 21, 2024. EPA will make selections on a rolling basis.

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced additional new steps to further the President's historic commitment to environmental justice, including new actions to advance Executive Order 14096 on Revitalizing Our Nation's Commitment to Environmental Justice for All:

• The Office of Management and Budget, in coordination with the Council on Environmental Quality, published the second annual Environmental Justice Scorecard, a government-wide assessment of what 24 federal agencies did to advance environmental justice in Fiscal Year 2023. The Environmental Justice Scorecard incorporates recommendations from the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and feedback from the public, environmental justice stakeholders, and experts.

• The White House Office of Environmental Justice, within the Council on Environmental Quality, launched EnvironmentalJustice.gov, a new website that highlights the Administration's actions on environmental justice, features stories of progress across America, and shares tools, resources, and funding opportunities to empower communities to navigate federal programs and advance environmental justice in their neighborhoods.

• The Office of Science and Technology Policy, in coordination with the Council on Environmental Quality, announced the release of the inaugural Environmental Justice Science, Data, and Research Plan. Directed by President Biden, this plan provides actionable recommendations for federal agencies to identify and address longstanding barriers and data gaps that relate to environmental justice. The plan was developed by 11 agencies and three components of the Executive Office of the President that participate in the National Science and Technology Council's Environmental Justice Subcommittee and was informed by public input.

• The White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council (IAC) adopted a Memorandum of Understanding across 24 principals of 16 federal agencies and eight components of the Executive Office of the President to support and advance the IAC's mission to facilitate robust and effective interagency coordination on environmental justice.

These announcements build on three and a half years of progress to advance environmental justice under President Biden's leadership. Other recent highlights include:

• Delivering on the Justice40 Initiative. Through President Biden's Justice40 Initiative, the Administration is working hard to deliver 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, clean water, and other investments to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. In total, more than 500 federal programs across 19 federal agencies are being reimagined and transformed to meet the Justice40 goal. Agencies are using the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool to identify disadvantaged communities.
• Making historic investments in environmental justice. The President's Investing in America agenda makes historic investments to advance environmental justice. This includes $7 billion in Solar for All Grants to deliver residential solar, which is saving money for households in low-income and disadvantaged communities as part of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the over $3 billion Environmental and Climate Justice block grant program, and $4 billion to revitalize and reconnect communities that have been left behind and divided by transportation infrastructure. Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, agencies are also investing billions to plug orphaned oil and gas wells, remediate abandoned mine lands, replace lead service lines, increase equitable access to trees and green spaces, install air monitors to screen for pollution, purchase clean school buses, improve public transportation with low and no-emission buses, and more.

• Finalizing ambitious regulatory protections for clean air, clean water, and fenceline communities. The Biden-Harris Administration has taken broad regulatory action to protect public health and secure environmental justice. The EPA established the first-ever national drinking water standard for PFAS, banned ongoing uses of asbestos, and strengthened lead protections andMercury and Air Toxics Standards. To address elevated cancer risk and other harms to fenceline communities, the EPA finalized new health protections to reduce exposure to ethylene oxide, issued strong standards to reduce pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants, finalized stronger clean air standards for chemical plants, and improved safety standards to protect at-risk communities from chemical accidents. The EPA also took action to adopt stronger standards for harmful soot pollution, which will prevent up to 4,500 premature deaths and yield up to $46 billion in net health benefits, and finalized national pollution standards for passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty vehicles as well as heavy-duty vehicles that will deliver $13 billion of annual public health benefits due to improved air quality.
• Prioritizing resilience, jobs, and workers with historic climate action. President Biden has led and delivered on the most ambitious climate and environmental justice agenda in history, including securing the biggest climate protection bill ever. The President launched the American Climate Corps, a workforce training and service initiative that will ensure more young people have access to the skills-based training they need for good-paying careers in the clean energy and climate resilience economy. The Climate Corps focuses on creating good-paying jobs and advancing environmental justice, prioritizing communities traditionally left behind. To protect all communities in harm's way due to extreme weather and climate disasters, the Biden-Harris Administration has placed environmental and economic justice at the center of its climate resilience agenda. For example, the President's Fiscal Year 2025 Budget invests $23 billion in climate adaptation and resilience across the federal government to help protect the most vulnerable Americans from the economic and physical impacts of climate change. Further, the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed a new rule that, if finalized, would establish the nation's first-ever federal safety standard to protect workers from extreme heat in the workplace.
• Expanding the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring that the voices, perspectives, and lived realities of communities with environmental justice concerns are heard in the White House and reflected in federal policies, investments, and decisions. President Biden appointed 12 additional members to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC), a federal advisory committee that President Biden established under Executive Order 14008 on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. The establishment of the WHEJAC marked the first time that a Presidential advisory body has been tasked with providing recommendations to the federal government on environmental justice. The WHEJAC held its first joint public meeting with the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council in June 2024.
• Increasing public engagement in environmental reviews and the regulatory process. The Biden-Harris Administration finalized a rule to advance environmental justice and promote meaningful public input in the federal environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act. The rule helps ensure projects are built smart from the start by promoting early and meaningful engagement with communities, fostering community buy-in, reducing or avoiding conflict, and improving project design. In addition, the rule directs agencies - consistent with current best practices - to consider environmental justice in environmental reviews and to encourage measures to avoid or reduce disproportionate effects on communities, including the cumulative impacts of environmental and other burdens. The Office of Management and Budget also issued updated guidance to broaden public engagement in the regulatory process. The Administration will continue to seek public input as it develops a federal framework, guidelines, and leading practices for public participation and community engagement activities.
• Solidifying a whole-of-government commitment to environmental justice. President Biden's Executive Order 14096 on Revitalizing Our Nation's Commitment to Environmental Justice for All makes clear that the pursuit of environmental justice is a duty of all executive branch agencies and should be incorporated into their missions. To support agencies in their work to further embed environmental justice into the federal DNA and deliver real, measurable progress, the Council on Environmental Quality released a template for agencies to help develop their Environmental Justice Strategic Plans. Agencies also incorporated environmental justice into updated versions of their Climate Adaptation Plans. Additionally, the Administration is taking ambitious action to tackle plastic pollution and released the first comprehensive, government-wide strategy to reduce the impact of plastic pollution throughout the plastics lifecycle, calling for sustained and coordinated work with communities with environmental justice concerns.
• Rapidly accelerating locally led efforts to conserve, protect, and expand access to lands and waters across America. From protecting Bristol Bay in Alaska, working to restore healthy and abundant salmon in the Columbia River Basin, and safeguarding the Grand Canyon to investing $1.5 billion in local parks and tree cover, President Biden is protecting and restoring lands and waters that are important to Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples and creating more equitable access to nature. The Biden-Harris Administration has also undertaken an all-of-government approach to engage more effectively in supporting local leaders' efforts to improve access to and create, expand, steward, and conserve parks and green and blue spaces for communities that currently lack access to nature. The Administration released the first-ever U.S. Ocean Justice Strategy to advance environmental justice for communities that rely on the ocean and Great Lakes, and is in the process of evaluating the potential Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, the first Indigenous-led nomination for a National Marine Sanctuary.
• Strengthening enforcement of environmental and civil rights laws. The Justice Department's (DOJ) Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) is engaging DOJ bureaus, components, and offices to ensure that DOJ utilizes the full set of legal tools at its disposal to secure environmental justice. OEJ is the central hub as DOJ implements a comprehensive environmental justice enforcement strategy to enhance civil and criminal enforcement of environmental violations in communities overburdened by pollution. For example, following an interim resolution agreement, DOJ and the Department of Health and Human Services announced that the Alabama Department of Public Health has made progress in providing access to basic sanitation services, abating exposure to raw sewage from inadequate onsite wastewater systems, and improving health outcomes for the predominantly Black communities of Lowndes County, Alabama. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency has strengthened its environmental justice enforcement, such as by increasing the percentage of on-site inspections in communities with potential environmental justice concerns and finalizing Superfund settlement agreements for cleanup work near communities with potential environmental justice concerns.
• Increasing technical assistance and capacity building. The Environmental Protection Agency established a network of 16 environmental justice assistance centers with over 160 partners to support communities and their partners as they work to access federal resources. The program is part of the Federal Interagency Thriving Communities Network, which is developing a holistic government-wide framework for technical assistance and capacity building. The Department of Energy also launched the Regional Energy Democracy Initiative, or REDI, to help direct capacity building and technical assistance for community-based organizations and local stakeholders who are engaged in the coordination, development, and delivery of community benefits associated with Department-funded projects in the Gulf South region. Additionally, the White House published a Technical Assistance Guide to make it easier for communities across the country to navigate, access, and deploy infrastructure, climate resilience, and clean energy funding. The Environmental Protection Agency also launched the Environmental Justice Clearinghouse, a first-of-its-kind online collection of resources related to environmental justice.
• Reforming federal funding and support for Tribal Nations. To help ensure that the benefits of the Investing in America agenda reach Tribal Nations and Tribal communities, President Biden signed Executive Order 14112 on Reforming Federal Funding and Support for Tribal Nations To Better Embrace Our Trust Responsibilities and Promote the Next Era of Tribal Self-Determination. Among other agency investments, the Department of the Interior recently made available $120 million in new funding to help Tribal communities prepare for the most severe climate-related environmental threats to their homelands. Overall, the Investing in America agenda provides for nearly $560 million in new investments to support climate resilience in Tribal communities.