Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), attended an event at the White House where President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order titled, Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All. The Executive Order builds upon the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government approach to Environmental Justice. 

The Executive Order includes provisions to better protect overburdened communities from pollution and environmental harms. Blunt Rochester has proposed similar provisions in Congress through the introduction of the Alerting Localities of Environmental Risks and Threats Act. 

“I was thrilled to be at the White House with Delaware’s Environmental Justice leaders as President Biden signed an Executive Order underscoring our shared belief that every American has the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live in a healthy community,” said Rep. Blunt Rochester. “I’m particularly proud of the provision of the Executive Order which would alert local communities in the event of toxic spills or releases - provisions I’ve championed through my introduction of the ALERT Act. I look forward to continuing to work with the Biden-Harris Administration to secure Environmental Justice for All.” 

The new Executive Order, Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All, will:

• Deepen the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government commitment to environmental justice. The new Executive Order makes clear that the pursuit of environmental justice is a duty of all executive branch agencies and should be incorporated into their missions. It also affirms that environmentaljustice is central to the implementation of our bedrock civil rights and environmental laws.
• Better protect overburdened communities from pollution and environmental harms. The Executive Order directs agencies to consider measures to address and prevent disproportionate and adverse environmental and health impacts on communities, including the cumulative impacts of pollution and other burdens like climate change. Additionally, it requires agencies to notify nearby communities in the event of a release of toxic substances from a federal facility, and to hold a public meeting to share information on resulting health risks and necessary precautions.
• Strengthen engagement with communities and mobilize federal agencies to confront existing and legacy barriers and injustices. Communities with environmental justice concerns have long experienced exclusion and other significant barriers to having a voice in federal decision-making. The Executive Order recognizes this reality and that racism is a fundamental driver of environmental injustice. It directs agencies to actively facilitate meaningful public participation and just treatment of all people in agency decision-making. The Executive Order also underscores the vital importance of Tribal consultation and coordination, including to strengthen nation-to-nation relationships on issues involving environmental justice.
• Promote the latest science, data, and research, including on cumulative impacts. The Executive Order directs agencies to identify and address gaps in science, data, and research related to environmental justice, to advance the analysis of cumulative impacts, and to make information on environmental and health concerns more publicly accessible to communities. To address the need for a coordinated strategy for identifying and filling environmental justice data and research gaps, the Executive Order establishes a new Environmental Justice Subcommittee within the National Science and Technology Council, led by the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
• Expand interagency coordination and launch a new Office of Environmental Justice within the White House Council on Environmental Quality.Building on Executive Order 14008, the Executive Order adds agencies to the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council to further a whole-of-government strategy to address current and historic environmental injustice. The Executive Order also establishes the White House Office of EnvironmentalJustice, led by the Federal Chief Environmental Justice Officer, and tasks it with coordinating the implementation of environmental justice policy across the federal government, ensuring that federal efforts can evolve alongside our understanding of environmental justice.
• Increase accountability and transparency in federal environmental justice policy. The Executive Order charges federal agencies with conducting new assessments of their environmental justice efforts and developing, implementing, and periodically updating an environmental justice strategic plan. These Environmental Justice Strategic Plans and Assessments will be submitted to the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and made public on a regular basis, including through the Environmental Justice Scorecard, a new government-wide assessment of federal agencies’ efforts to advance environmental justice.
• Honor and build on the foundation of ongoing environmental justice work. Under the Executive Order, agencies will continue their efforts to advance environmental justice in ways that complement and deepen prior work. The Executive Order uses the term “disproportionate and adverse” as a simpler, modernized version of the phrase “disproportionately high and adverse” used in Executive Order 12898. Those phrases have the same meaning, but removing the word “high” eliminates potential misunderstanding that agencies should only be considering large disproportionate effects.

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