President Biden's Executive Order 14,008 on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad directs the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to create an Environmental Justice Scorecard as a mechanism to hold agencies accountable in their efforts to advance environmental justice; achieve tangible results on the ground in communities; and spur economic opportunity for disadvantaged communities. CEQ emphasizes that the scorecard will, “assess progress on environmental justice” and specifically “will measure progress towards the Justice40 Initiative,” which seeks to ensure that “40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments…flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized and overburdened by pollution and underinvestment in basic services.”
Policy Integrity submitted comments on the EJ Scorecard on behalf of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance (EJHA) and Coming Clean. EJHA and Coming Clean are made up of grassroots environmental justice groups, health organizations, environmental groups, community and neighborhood organizations and many more constituencies united in working towards a healthy, just and equitable present and future. The comments were also signed on to by over 20 grassroots organizations from around the country.