Updated August 29, 2019March 26, 2020
Role of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in
Environmental Justice
Executive Order 12898
What Is Environmental Justice?
The role of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) in environmental justice is rooted in Executive Order
(E.O.) 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental
Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income
Populations, signed by President Bill Clinton on February
11, 1994. E.O. 12898 directs each executive department and
agency, including EPA, to “make achieving environmental
justice part of its mission.”
What constitutes environmental justice has been an ongoing
issue for many years. There is no definition of
environmental justice in federal law. Some have interpreted
the terms “environmental justice (or injustice)” and
“environmental equity (or inequity)” broadly to describe the
perceived disproportionate impacts of pollution across
populations that possess different demographic
characteristics (e.g., age, gender, race, national origin,
occupation, income, or language). Some have also raised
concerns about environmental justice in terms of access to
natural resources and recreational opportunities as part of a
broader focus on the environment than just pollution from
anthropogenic sources.
The consideration of environmental justice across federal
programs and activities is not mandated in statute. E.O.
12898 more generally directs executive departments and
agencies to integrate environmental justice into their
respective missions to “the greatest extent practicable and
permitted by law.” Some departments and agencies have
incorporated the consideration of environmental justice into
their respective regulations to carry out the E.O.
E.O. 12898 itself does not establish federal law but is a
presidential directive for the management of executive
departments and agencies that instructs the implementation
of existing law. (See CRS Report RS20846, Executive
Orders: Issuance, Modification, and Revocation, by Todd
Garvey.) The E.O. is not judicially enforceable and
explicitly precludes “any right of judicial review involving
the compliance or noncompliance of the United States, its
agencies, officers, or any other person with this order.”
Although amended by E.O. 12948 in 1995, E.O. 12898 has
not been revoked or further amended under the current or
previous Administrations to date and continues to apply to
executive departments and agencies. E.O. 12948 amended
time frames for certain actions directed in E.O. 12898, but
all other provisions have remained unchanged.
Under E.O. 12898, executive departments and agencies are
responsible for interpreting the statutes that authorize their
respective programs and activities to determine the extent to
which environmental justice may be incorporated as a facet
of implementation. Some agency programs or activities
may not incorporate environmental justice or may
incorporate it in a more limited capacity. Although the
authorizing statutes do not explicitly preclude consideration
of environmental justice, some implementation criteria may
be inconsistent with such considerations. For example,
federal environmental laws that authorize the permitting of
industrial facilities do not allow the denial of a permit
solely because of proximity to a particular community
based on its demographics, although, during permitting
actions, certain communities may cite proximity as an
environmental justice concern. From a scientific standpoint,
potential health risks in such situations would depend on
exposure to pollutants, not proximity alone.
Stakeholder concerns about the consideration of
environmental justice in the implementation of EPA
programs and activities have generally focused on the
protection of certain populations that may be
disproportionately exposed to potentially hazardous or toxic
substances. Economic impacts may also be cited as an
environmental justice concern, such as perceived effects of
the presence of pollution sources on property values.
E.O. 12898 refers to environmental justice in terms of
disproportionately high and adverse human health or
environmental impacts specifically on minority and lowincome populations. In its role under E.O. 12898, EPA has
generally defined 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.” Other federal departments and agencies may
tailor their definition of environmental justice to their
respective missions.
EPA Implementation
EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ), administered
within the Office of the Administrator, coordinates the
implementation of E.O. 12898 within the agency to
integrate environmental justice into policies and programs
across the agency’s headquarters and regional offices. OEJ
also administers EPA environmental justice grants and may
provide information and technical assistance to other
federal departments and agencies in their implementation of
E.O. 12898. Prior to early 2018, OEJ was managed within
EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.
Established just prior to the E.O. on September 30, 1993,
the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council
(NEJAC) has also served as a federal independent advisory
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Role of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Environmental Justice
committee to EPA and has continued to consult with the
agency in its implementation of the E.O.
EPA Environmental Justice Progress Reports
EPA issues annual progress reports summarizing how the
agency seeks to incorporate the principles of environmental
justice into its programs, pursuant to the E.O. Most
recently, the Trump Administration issued the EPA Annual
Environmental Justice Progress Report FY2018 (August
2019). The report provides an overview of EPA’s activities
during FY2018, including in its regional offices, as well as
efforts through partnerships with federal, state and local
governments, tribes, and communities. The report also
highlights the activities of the Office of Community
Revitalization (formerly the Office of Sustainability) and
the NEJAC. EPA is operating under its multi-year EJ 2020
Action Agenda that outlines the agency’s plans to
incorporate environmental justice into its mission from
2016 to 2020, issued during the Obama Administration.
programs to the extent allowed under the statutes that
authorize them. Figure 1 presents enacted appropriations
from FY2012 to FY2020 and the President’s FY2021
request for the Environmental Justice program area within
the EPA Environmental Programs and Management
account (not adjusting for inflation). OEJ uses these funds
for grants, technical assistance, and coordination described
above. For this program area for FY2020, Title II of
Division D in the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act,
2020 (P.L. 116-94), appropriated $9.6 million, an increase
above the $6.7 million FY2019 enacted level, and the
President’s FY2021 request of $2.7 million. The
Explanatory Statement accompanying P.L. 116-94 directed
EPA to follow the guidance cited in the House Report
(H.Rept. 116-100).
Figure 1. Appropriations for EPA Environmental
Justice Grants and Coordination: FY2012-FY2020
Enacted and FY2021 Requested
EJSCREEN
Launched in 2015, EPA’s EJSCREEN is a screening and
mapping tool intended to provide environmental and
demographic data for specific locations. EPA categorizes
EJSCREEN as a resource for stakeholders and communities
to evaluate the overlap between environmental conditions
and demographic characteristics to inform public comments
on proposed rulemaking, permitting, and other regulatory
actions. EPA emphasizes that EJSCREEN is not intended to
identify environmental justice communities, quantify
specific risk values for a selected area, measure cumulative
impacts of multiple environmental factors, or form the basis
of agency determinations of the existence or absence of
environmental justice concerns.
EPA Guidance for Regulatory Analysis
Issued in June 2016, the EPA Technical Guidance for
Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis
(EJTG) establishes procedures for evaluating environmental
justice concerns potentially associated with agency
regulatory actions. The EJTG is intended to provide
consistency across EPA’s programs and offices in
integrating environmental justice into the implementation
and enforcement of the federal statutes that the agency
administers in coordination with delegated states.
The EJTG supplements EPA’s final Guidance on
Considering Environmental Justice During the
Development of a Regulatory Action, issued in May 2015.
However, the federal environmental statutes that authorize
EPA regulations do not specify environmental justice as a
criterion for agency decisions. These statutes address the
protection of human health and the environment among the
general public regardless of population demographics.
EPA Appropriations
There is no consolidated line item of funding for EPA’s
implementation of E.O. 12898 within the annual
appropriations acts that fund the agency. Although there is
no separately explicit program authority, Congress has
provided specific funding in annual appropriations acts
primarily for environmental justice grants to assist
potentially disproportionately affected communities. Other
EPA funding to implement the E.O is generally integrated
across the agency’s appropriations accounts that fund its
programs to the extent allowed under the statutes that
authorize them. Figure 1 presents enacted appropriations
from FY2012 to FY2019 and proposed FY2020
appropriations for the Environmental Justice program area
within the EPA Environmental Programs and Management
account (not adjusting for inflation). OEJ uses these funds
for grants, technical assistance, and coordination described
above. For this program area, the President requested $2.7
million for FY2020, a $4.0 million reduction from $6.74
million enacted for FY2019. As passed by the House on
June 25, 2019, Title II in Division C of H.R. 3055 would
provide $9.6 million. Senate action on EPA appropriations
as yet has not been completed.
Figure 1. Appropriations for EPA Environmental
Justice Grants and Coordination: FY2012-FY2019
Enacted and FY2020 Proposed
(not adjusted for inflation)
Source: Prepared by CRS using information from the Congressional
Record (explanatory statements); and House, Senate, and conference
committee reports. Enacted amounts appropriated within EPA’s
Environmental Programs and Management account reflect rescissions
and supplemental appropriations.
Federal Interagency Working Group on
Environmental Justice
E.O. 12898 directed the establishment of the Federal
Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJ
IWG) to facilitate collaboration among federal departments
and agencies. Chaired by EPA, the EJ IWG has established
several standing committees and may create others as
needed to carry out various aspects of the E.O.
The heads of
the 17 federal departments and agencies that
comprise the
EJ IWG adopted a charter in a 2011
“Memorandum of
Understanding.” As revised in 2014, the
charter provides a
framework and guidance to address
coordination among
individual departments and agencies in
implementing E.O.
12898. In March 2016, the working
group released its EJ
IWG Framework for Collaboration:
Fiscal Years 2016-201820162018. To carry out E.O. 12898, EPA and
other departments
and agencies have also developed
various strategies,
policies, and guidelines over time to
incorporate incorporate
environmental justice into their programs and
activities activities
within the confines of existing law.
Robert Esworthy, Specialist in Environmental Policy
David M. Bearden, Specialist in Environmental Policy
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IF10529
Role of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Environmental Justice
IF10529
David M. Bearden, Specialist in Environmental Policy
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