Repost from Mailing List, EPA Environmental Justice

EPA Issues Final Guidance on Considering EJ During Rulemaking

June 2, 2015 1:28 PM

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued final Guidance on Considering Environmental Justice During the Development of a Regulatory Action. This guidance was created to ensure understanding and foster consistency with efforts across EPA’s programs and regions to consider environmental justice and make a visible difference in America’s communities. The final guidance supersedes the agency’s Interim Guidance on Considering Environmental Justice During the Development of an Action, released in July 2010.

Key improvements from the interim guidance include:

• Refined discussion of the factors that contribute to potential environmental justice concerns;
• Refined direction on when and to what extent environmental justice needs to be considered in the rulemaking process;
• Recommendations added for how to meaningfully engage minority, low-income, and indigenous populations and tribes;

A blog authored by Cynthia Giles and Jim Jones can be found at http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2015/06/integrating-environmental-justice-into-our-work/; a copy of the final guidance and the memo transmitting the guidance to the programs that write national rules can be found at: http://epa.gov/environmentaljustice/resources/policy/ej-rulemaking.html.

The guidance supports EPA implementation of Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations (http://epa.gov/environmentaljustice/resources/policy/exec_order_12898.pdf). Rulemaking is a critical part of how we carry out our mission of protecting the environment and health of all Americans.

All questions can be directed to: lee.charles@epa.gov

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