EPA Needs to Consistently Implement the Intent of the Executive Order on Environmental Justice: EPA Evaluation Report

EPA Needs to Consistently Implement the Intent of the Executive Order on Environmental Justice: EPA Evaluation Report PDF Author: Daniel J. Carroll
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 0756742978
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 75

Book Description


EPA Needs to Consistently Implement the Intent of the Executive Order on Environmental Justice Oig Evaluation Report

EPA Needs to Consistently Implement the Intent of the Executive Order on Environmental Justice Oig Evaluation Report PDF Author: United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781723170607
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 76

Book Description
EPA Needs to Consistently Implement the Intent of the Executive Order on Environmental Justice OIG Evaluation Report

EPA Needs to Consistently Implement the Intent of the Executive Order on Environmental Justice

EPA Needs to Consistently Implement the Intent of the Executive Order on Environmental Justice PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Environmental justice
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description


Environmental Justice

Environmental Justice PDF Author: United States. Government Accountability Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Air
Languages : en
Pages : 68

Book Description


Environmental Justice

Environmental Justice PDF Author: John B. Stephenson
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 9781422302712
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 60

Book Description


Models for Change

Models for Change PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Environmental justice
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Book Description


Environmental Right-To-Know: EPA’s Recent Rule Could Reduce Availability of Toxic Chemical Information Used to Assess Environmental Justice

Environmental Right-To-Know: EPA’s Recent Rule Could Reduce Availability of Toxic Chemical Information Used to Assess Environmental Justice PDF Author:
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 9781422399699
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 30

Book Description


Environmental Justice

Environmental Justice PDF Author: John B. Stephenson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Environmental justice
Languages : en
Pages : 14

Book Description
A 1994 Executive Order sought to ensure that minority and low-income populations are not subjected to disproportionately high levels of environmental risk. Studies have shown that these groups are indeed disproportionately exposed to air pollution and other environmental and health problems. The Order sought to address the problem by requiring EPA and other federal agencies to make achieving environmental justice part of their missions. In July 2005, GAO issued a report entitled, Environmental Justice: EPA Should Devote More Attention to Environmental Justice When Developing Clean Air Rules (GAO-05-289). Focusing on three specific rules for detailed study, the report identified a number of weaknesses in EPA's approach to ensuring that environmental justice is considered from the early stages of rule development through their issuance. The report made several recommendations, to which EPA replied in an August 24, 2006 letter. GAO also met recently with cognizant EPA staff to obtain updated information on the agency's responses to these recommendations. In this testimony, GAO (1) summarizes the key findings of its 2005 report, (2) outlines its recommendations to EPA and EPA's August 2006 responses, and (3) provides updated information on subsequent EPA actions. EPA generally devoted little attention to environmental justice when drafting three significant clean air rules between fiscal years 2000 and 2004. GAO's 2005 report concluded, for example, that while EPA guidance on rulemaking states that workgroups should consider environmental justice early in the process, a lack of guidance and training for workgroup members on how to identify potential environmental justice impacts limited their ability to analyze such issues. Similarly, while EPA considered environmental justice to varying degrees in the final stages of the rulemaking process, in general the agency rarely provided a clear rationale for its decisions on environmental justice-related matters. For example, in responding to comments during the final phase of one of the rules, EPA asserted that the rule would not have any disproportionate impacts on low-income or minority communities, but did not publish any data or the agency's assumptions in support of that conclusion. Among its recommendations, GAO called on EPA to ensure that its rulemaking workgroups devote attention to environmental justice while drafting and finalizing clean air rules. EPA's August 2006 letter responded that it had made its Office of Environmental Justice an ex officio member of the Regulatory Steering Committee so that it would be aware of important regulations under development and participate in workgroups as necessary. GAO also recommended that EPA improve the way environmental justice impacts are addressed in its economic reviews by identifying the data and developing the modeling techniques needed to assess such impacts. EPA responded that its Office of Air and Radiation was examining ways to improve its air models so it could better account for the socioeconomic variables identified in the Executive Order. GAO also recommended that cognizant EPA officials respond more fully to public comments on environmental justice by better explaining their rationale and by providing the supporting data for the agency's decisions. EPA responded that it would re-emphasize the need to respond fully to public comments, include the rationale for its regulatory approach, and describe its supporting data. Recent discussions between GAO and EPA officials suggest that some progress has been made to incorporate environmental justice concerns in the agency's air rulemaking, but that significant challenges remain. For example, while the Office of Environmental Justice may be an ex officio member of the Regulatory Steering Committee, it has not participated directly in any air rules that have been proposed or finalized since EPA's August 2006 letter to GAO. Also, according to EPA staff, some of the training courses that were planned have not yet been developed due to staff turnover among other reasons. When asked about GAO's recommendation that cognizant officials respond more fully to public comments on environmental justice, the EPA officials cited a recent rulemaking in which this was done. But the officials said they were unaware of any memoranda or revised guidance that would encourage more global progress on this key issue.

Environmental Justice

Environmental Justice PDF Author: U S Government Accountability Office (G
Publisher: BiblioGov
ISBN: 9781289084233
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 52

Book Description
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.

Environmental Justice

Environmental Justice PDF Author: United States Government Accountability Office
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781468003611
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 48

Book Description
In recent years, EPA has renewed its efforts to make environmental justice an important part of its mission by developing a new strategy and approach for integrating environmental justice considerations into the agency's programs, policies, and activities. Under Plan EJ 2014, the agency's 4-year environmental justice implementation plan, EPA's program and regional offices are assuming principal responsibility for integrating the agency's efforts by carrying out nine implementation plans to put Plan EJ 2014 into practice. An important aspect of Plan EJ 2014 is to obtain input on major agency environmental justice initiatives from key stakeholders, including the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, the Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice, impacted communities, and states. In developing its environmental justice framework, which consists of agency initiatives, including Plan EJ 2014 and the implementation plans, EPA generally followed most of the six leading federal strategic planning practices that we selected for review. For example, EPA has generally defined a mission and goals for its environmental justice efforts, ensured leadership involvement and accountability for these efforts, and coordinated with other federal agencies--all consistent with leading practices in federal strategic planning. However, EPA has not yet fully (1) established a clear strategy for how it will define key environmental justice terms or identified the resources it may need to carry out its environmental justice implementation plans, (2) articulated clearly states' roles in ongoing planning and environmental justice integration efforts, or (3) developed performance measures for eight of its nine implementation plans to track agency progress on its environmental justice goals. Without additional progress on these practices, EPA cannot assure itself, its stakeholders, and the public that it has established a framework to effectively guide and assess its efforts to integrate environmental justice across the agency.