WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden will sign an executive order on Friday in an effort to advance his administration’s environmental justice goals, such as delivering clean air and water to communities nationwide.
Detailing the executive, the White House said, “For too long, communities across our country have suffered persistent environmental injustice through toxic pollution, underinvestment in infrastructure and critical services, and other disproportionate environmental losses. ” Order. “These communities with environmental justice concerns face even greater burdens due to climate change.”
Biden is scheduled to deliver remarks about the executive action from the White House Rose Garden on Friday afternoon. The president wants to ensure that Americans, regardless of their race or background, income or place of residence, have “safe, clean air and water, reduced risk for asthma, cancer and other health burdens, and better access to green space”. benefit from and affordable housing, and clean transportation,” the White House said.
The order would establish an Office of Environmental Justice in the White House to coordinate the administration’s efforts to enforce the new directive.
Biden’s action would require agencies to notify nearby communities about releases of toxic substances from federal facilities and would direct agencies to engage with American communities, including on tribal lands.
The White House said federal agencies will also be tasked with making new assessments of their environmental justice efforts, which will be made public through a new scorecard to help measure the government’s progress on the issue.
A White House official said Biden plans to highlight how his environmental justice and climate agenda is the exact opposite of the “dangerous vision” of the speaker in his speech on Friday. [Kevin] McCarthy and his Extreme Caucus have for our planet, our economy and public health.”
The official said a recently passed energy measure by House Republicans that seeks to undo nearly all of Biden’s climate change agenda “would be a climate and health disaster that President Biden would not allow on his watch.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y, called that bill “dead on arrival.”
Under pressure from the administration, Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Florida on Friday to announce new investments to strengthen coastal resilience to the effects of climate change and extreme storms, the official said.
