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Last week’s “Climate Day” actions grabbed headlines primarily for how they respond to climate risk through increased federal coordination. Equally important may be the actions the Biden administration took that day to combat environmental injustice, in large part by expanding the role of science and equity considerations in rulemaking and other agency actions. This change in focus will color how agencies regulate and enforce regulations concerning air emissions as well as other media, including emerging chemicals of concern, like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). First, the Executive Order on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the President’s Memorandum on Restoring Trust in Government Through Scientific Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking re-committed the federal government to science-based decision-making through the establishment of a Council of Advisors on Scienc
The Rundown
House Democrats propose
$1.5 billion to help low-income households with water and sewer bills. A congressional task force outlines its
PFAS priorities for the Biden administration. The president’s executive order on climate change establishes an interagency council on
environmental justice. U.S. Geological Survey researchers look at the relationship between rainfall and streams in a
New Mexico watershed before and after a fire. And lastly, the Senate
confirmation hearing for Michael Regan, the nominee to head the EPA will be on February 3.
“You know, we can put millions of Americans to work modernizing our water systems, transportation, our energy infrastructure to withstand the impacts of extreme climate. We’ve already reached a point where we’re going to have to live with what it is now. That’s going to require a lot of work all by itself, without it getting any worse.” President Joe Biden speaking at the White House before signing executive
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President Joe Biden issued a series of executive orders on January 27 to further confront the “existential threat” of climate change, to reaffirm the executive branch’s commitment to evidence-based policymaking and innovation, and to build on the executive actions
taken on Day 1. This LawFlash provides an overview of several of the key actions under those orders.
ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE AT HOME AND ABROAD
The
Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad(Climate Order) aims to spur domestic action and cooperation with international partners to address the impacts of climate change, which the president describes as a “climate crisis.” The Climate Order initiates a series of planned actions at the federal government level, including the creation of new executive-level offices and senior administration roles, a directive to halt new oil and natural gas leases on public lands or offshore w
The Biden administration identified environmental justice (“EJ”) as a campaign priority
1 and the Biden-Harris team has continually emphasized its commitment to environmental justice, stating that the administration would “[e]nsure that environmental justice is a key consideration in” among other things “righting wrongs in communities that bear the brunt of pollution.”
2 How the incoming administration translates its policy statements into action that directly impacts the regulated community in the enforcement context remains an open question.
There is a well-established framework for EJ programs going back several decades. EJ has grown to include a range of issues, many of which do not directly implicate enforcement. The Biden administration’s EJ focus will likely be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The differentiators may prove to be the level of focus and resources devoted to EJ issues and the extent to which EJ practice and programs become further embedded