President Biden signed an executive order on Friday directing all federal agencies to make it their “mission” to work toward “environmental justice for all.”
The order, which comes one day before Earth Day, also creates a White House Office of Environmental Justice. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.”
The order aims to “better protect overburdened communities from pollution and environmental harms.” It claims that “racism is a fundamental driver of environmental injustice,” according to the White House.
“For far too long, communities across our country have faced persistent environmental injustice through toxic pollution, underinvestment in infrastructure and critical services, and other disproportionate environmental harms often due to a legacy of racial discrimination,” the White House said.
The directive would also require federal agencies to notify communities if toxic substances are released from a federal facility.
“This is about people’s health. It’s about the health of our communities. It’s only about the future of our planet,” Biden said during a signing ceremony at the White House on Friday.
The Climate Justice Alliance told USA Today the order results from nearly 20 years of organizing by the environmental justice movement.
Republican Representative Bruce Westerman of Arkansas, who serves as chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, called Biden’s order wasteful.
“The idea that creating a new office and launching new messaging campaigns will do anything other than waste tax dollars is laughable,” Westerman said.
During the signing ceremony on Friday, Biden also celebrated the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which he signed into law last year, and criticized Republican calls to end clean energy tax cuts as part of a debt limit increase. GOP lawmakers have warned that open-ended tax credits could bring the total cost of the Inflation Reduction Act’s climate measures, billed at $369 billion, to more than $1 trillion. Republicans have proposed repealing or revising 24 tax incentives enacted or amended by the IRA.
“The MAGA Republicans in Congress want to repeal climate protections in the Inflation Reduction Act. They’d rather threaten to default the U.S. economy . . . than get rid of $30 billion in taxpayer subsidies to an oil industry that made $200 billion last year,” he said. “Imagine taking all those clean energy jobs away from working-class folks all across America. Imagine turning your back on all those moms and dads living in towns poisoned by pollution and saying ‘sorry, you’re on your own.’”
“We can’t let that happen,” Biden said.