Plan EJ 2014: Legal Tools Development

President Clinton directed that federal agencies should utilize existing environmental and civil rights authorities to carry out the mandate of EO 12898, as communicated in his memorandum accompanying the executive order. An understanding of the Agency’s legal tools for achieving EJ is critical because EO 12898 itself is not a source of authority. By issuing the EJ Legal Tools document, EPA clarified how existing environmental statutes provide opportunities to address environmental hazards in low-income communities, communities of color, and Tribal and Indigenous communities.

Outcomes

EJ Legal Tools

In May 2022, EPA’s Office of General Counsel released EPA Legal Tools to Advance Environmental Justice (EJ Legal Tools), an updated and expanded compilation of legal authorities available to EPA. EJ Legal Tools is intended to help EPA decisionmakers and partners understand their authorities to consider and address environmental justice and equity in decision-making, and to promote meaningful engagement.

EJ Legal Tools highlights the environmental and civil rights statutes EPA implements to achieve the agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment for all communities and persons and to ensure that the environmental justice and equity agendas are integrated throughout the agency’s policies, programs, and activities.

EJ Legal Tools is not intended to be comprehensive and will be updated as needed. The document does not provide action-specific legal advice and is intended to foster a dialogue among EPA offices and programs to accelerate EPA efforts to advance environmental justice and equity.

To view EJ Legal Tools, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/ogc/epa-legal-tools-advance-environmental-justice.

This updated EPA Legal Tools builds on EPA’s General Counsel's first EJ Legal Tools document issued in 2011, EPA’s first compilation of the discretionary legal authorities that may be available to the EPA to address environmental justice. It covers key legal statutory and regulatory authorities that are relevant to EPA’s programs along with its environmental review, grants and tribal responsibilities.

 In response to Plan EJ 2014, this document consolidated, updated and expanded on the Office of General Counsel’s (OGC) past work on the subject of environmental justice, begun twenty years ago.

Former EPA General Counsel Scott Fulton Remarks on the Legal Tools - EPA's Former General Counsel Scott Fulton spoke about the importance of Environmental Justice and EPA's legal tools to advance Environmental Justice on February 23, 2012 at the National Press Club.

Cumulative Impacts Addendum

The Cumulative Impacts Addendum builds on EJ Legal Tools. The Addendum is a compilation of legal authorities available to EPA for identifying and addressing cumulative impacts on communities with environmental justice concerns and other overburdened and underserved populations, including communities of color, Indigenous people, and low-income communities.

In communities with environmental justice concerns, the combined exposures to a broad range of stressors (i.e., cumulative impacts) may often increase their vulnerability to environmental hazards, resulting in disproportionate environmental and public health harms and risks in those communities. Addressing cumulative impacts is an important tool to help protect public health in communities with environmental justice concerns and other overburdened populations.

A product of the EPA’s Office of General Counsel, the Addendum identifies for EPA decisionmakers and partners a wide range of authorities that can be deployed to address cumulative impacts affecting communities with environmental justice concerns and provides some illustrative examples. The Addendum is not intended to be comprehensive and will be updated as needed. It does not provide action-specific legal advice and is intended to foster a dialogue among EPA offices and programs to accelerate EPA efforts to advance environmental justice and equity.

To view the Cumulative Impacts Addendum, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/ogc/epa-legal-tools-advance-environmental-justice.