President Biden on Friday signed an executive order to create the White House Office of Environmental Justice. Aides said the idea is to ensure that poverty, race, and ethnic status do not lead to worse exposure to pollution and environmental harm. "Environmental justice will be the mission of the entire government woven directly into how we work with state, local, tribal and territorial governments," Biden said in a Rose Garden ceremony. The order tells executive branch agencies to use data and scientific research to understand how pollution hurts people's health, so that work can be done to limit any damage. Under the order, executive agencies would be required to inform nearby communities if toxic substances were released from a federal facility, the AP reports.
The order puts more pressure on federal agencies—and the White House itself—to deliver on promises the Biden administration has made to clean up the environment in poor communities and those of color and prepare them for the effects of climate change. The administration has had mixed results in fulfilling this promise. Biden tried to draw a contrast between his agenda and that of Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. GOP lawmakers have called for less regulation of oil production to lower energy prices, while the Biden administration says the GOP policies would give benefits to highly profitable oil companies and surrender the renewable energy sector to the Chinese.
The EPA last year formed its own Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, merging three existing EPA programs to oversee a portion of Democrats' $60 billion investment in environmental justice initiatives created by last year's Inflation Reduction Act. "The MAGA Republicans in Congress want to repeal climate protections" in the measure, Biden said Friday, per the Hill. "Imagine turning your back on all those moms and dads living in towns poisoned by pollution and saying 'sorry, you're on your own,'" he added. As part of the announcement, Vice President Kamala Harris was traveling to Miami to announce an expenditure of $562 million to help protect communities against the impacts of climate change.
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