The Biden Administration


WHEJAC Struggles To Impose ‘Penalties’ In Agencies’ Justice40 Scorecards

White House environmental justice (EJ) advisors are struggling to determine how to impose penalties for agencies that fall short on implementing Justice40, the Biden administration’s initiative to direct clean infrastructure benefits to EJ communities, in advice they are developing on how the administration should craft agency scorecards. Speaking during a Jan. 27 meeting, members of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) scorecard workgroup said they are grappling with how to impose consequences on agencies for missing key goals...

CEQ’s Mallory acknowledges difficulty of delivering on EJ

Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), delivered candid Jan. 26 remarks to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) about the difficulty of delivering “meaningful change that communities expect and deserve” to advance environmental justice (EJ). Her remarks were delivered the day before the one-year anniversary of President Joe Biden’s landmark EJ executive order (EO) laying out an ambitious climate and equity agenda. Mallory touted the administration’s first-year progress, including the launching or...

Environmentalists Frustrated With EPA’s Slow Pace On Repealing Trump Rules

As the Biden administration passes its one-year mark, environmentalists are expressing growing frustration with the slow pace of EPA’s efforts to repeal and replace what they say are highly problematic Trump-era rules and guidance documents, even as they acknowledge that some delays are due to the White House rather than the agency. While the administration was able to quickly secure favorable court rulings vacating several 11th-hour Trump rules -- such as those addressing the use of science in rulemakings, as...

Biden Urged To Replace Breyer With Strong Environmental Pick

Environmentalists and their Democratic allies are urging President Joe Biden to replace departing Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer with a strong supporter of environmental laws, charging that such a pick is needed to block the court’s conservative majority from further gutting them. "Our next Supreme Court Justice needs to be someone driven by facts and science, not political ideology, and respects the role of courts to be fair and impartial,” Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, said in a statement. “Now,...

CEQ Urges Appeals Court To Dismiss Challenge To Trump NEPA Rule

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is urging a federal appellate court to reject environmentalists’ efforts to continue their litigation over the Trump administration’s rule that dramatically scaled back how agencies implement the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), including regarding climate analysis. Rather than proceed with the litigation, CEQ says the court should dismiss the case because it is developing replacement policies for the 2020 regulation. Also, individual agencies can conduct environmental reviews based on their own NEPA...

EPA union gets new leaders

The largest EPA employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Council 238, is announcing new leadership, following the ratification of landmark contractual provisions with the agency that the union touts as highly favorable to workers. Marie Owens Powell, one of the contract negotiators, last month was named the council’s new president, having most recently served as local president of AFGE Local 3631 in Philadelphia, which represents EPA Region 3 workers. She is also an underground storage tank inspector...

Second top CEQ official’s departure worries EJ advocates

Another top White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) official is leaving the Biden administration just days after its top environmental justice (EJ) official abruptly departed last week, prompting heightened concern among advocates who fear the resignations will undercut officials’ focus on EJ issues. David Kieve, CEQ’s public engagement director, is slated to leave the council the week of Jan. 17, according to NBC News , which first reported the news. Kieve’s departure comes on the heels of the resignation...

Advocates Seek Non-Environmental Indicators In New EJ Screening Tool

Environmental justice (EJ) advocates are urging the Biden administration to include a host of new “indicators” -- many of which are not environmental -- in a new screening and mapping tool the White House is developing to identify and prioritize vulnerable communities as part of its Justice40 funding initiative. In the Jan. 10 report , researchers at the Community Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health Lab (CEEJH) at the University of Maryland and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) finds gaps in...

CEQ’s Top EJ Official Steps Down Amid Struggles, High Expectations

Cecilia Martinez, the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) senior director for environmental justice (EJ), is leaving the Biden administration after less than a year in the high-profile post even as the administration appears to be struggling to implement its ambitious agenda and meet high expectations from many activists. Martinez, who had been charged with instilling a whole-of-government approach to elevate EJ considerations throughout the federal decision-making process, announced her Jan. 7 departure in a Jan. 5 interview with...

Regan Says Agency Grappling With How To Measure Justice40 Benefits

EPA Administrator Michael Regan says the agency is continuing to grapple with the best way to measure the benefits of its six Justice40 pilot projects -- one of the thorniest issues officials face as they work to implement the high-profile environmental justice (EJ) program -- and is reviewing a range of potential metrics. These include measuring the percent reduction of children’s asthma-related hospital visits; the amount of pollutants reduced; reductions in hospital visits and missed days of work or school;...

OLEM Reviewing Thousands Of RCRA Facilities As Part Of EJ Action Plan

EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) is conducting a broad review and analysis of thousands of facilities regulated under its waste management program to help address environmental justice (EJ) concerns, one of a series of steps the office is undertaking to respond to such concerns in its programs. The review and analysis are one of a suite of actions spelled out in a draft EJ action plan EPA released Jan. 5, in which OLEM details a series of...

Biden resubmits stalled EPA nominees for Senate’s new session

As a new congressional session begins, President Joe Biden has resubmitted to the Senate three key EPA nominees whose nominations have cleared the environment committee but were not confirmed by the full Senate last year, along with a slew of other nominees in the same predicament. Biden resubmitted to the Senate Jan. 4 the nominations of Christopher Frey to run EPA’s Office of Research & Development (ORD), David Uhlmann to lead the Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance (OECA) and...

EPA Rescinds Trump Civil Inspection Rule To Restore Needed ‘Flexibility’

Responding to an early Biden executive order (EO), EPA is rescinding a Trump-era rule that changed longstanding civil inspection practices after concluding that the rule, issued in 2020 to comply with a Trump EO, limited the flexibility agency inspectors need to conduct enforcement work on a case-by-case manner. And while EPA has revoked the rule, the agency says it will continue to generally follow its requirements. “The inspection rule being rescinded today converted a subset of what had been longstanding...

EPA Delays Cumulative Risk Guide To 2022 Amid Calls For Public Input

EPA has pushed its long-awaited guidelines for analyzing cumulative risks from overlapping chemical exposures and other hazards from a late 2021 target to “early 2022,” but the agency is maintaining that it will not take comments on the document despite stakeholders’ arguments that it is important enough to warrant a public-comment process. An agency spokesperson told Inside TSCA on Dec. 14 that the “draft document is currently undergoing internal review. . . . We anticipate publication of the Guidelines...

Environmentalists Broaden Efforts To Address Civil Rights Beyond EPA

Environmentalists are broadening their efforts to challenge state actions under the Civil Rights Act (CRA), teaming up with housing and other advocates to file petitions asking EPA and other agencies to investigate alleged discrimination in alignment with the Biden administration’s whole-of-government approach to environmental justice (EJ). Last week, for example, environmentalists and fair housing advocates teamed up in filing a Title VI complaint asking the federal Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) to investigate discrimination allegations against Michigan housing...

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