Environmental Justice A Top EPA Enforcement Priority

The Biden Administration has implemented a broad "whole-of-government" policy to address issues of environmental justice. The new policy, set forth in a series of Executive Orders, has led EPA to pursue more aggressive enforcement of environmental laws in areas said to have been overlooked or ignored by prior administrations. And it has led to the creation of several top-level environmental justice offices—including at the Justice Department—and a spate of new environmental justice-focused civil and criminal enforcement guidance from the Justice Department and EPA.

Biden's Executive Orders: An Environmental Justice Focus from Day One

The administration's policy was announced the day President Biden took office, when he signed Executive Order ("EO") 13990, Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis (January 20, 2021).¹ That EO announced a policy to "advance environmental justice" by "hold[ing] polluters