Biden-Harris Administration Launches Public Process to Inform Development of Environmental Justice Scorecard, First-ever Tool to Assess Government-Wide Progress on Environmental Justice
Today, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is taking a next step in the development of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Environmental Justice Scorecard, a first-of-its-kind tool that will assess progress Federal agencies are making to advance environmental justice, including through the Justice40 Initiative.
CEQ Senior Director for Environmental Justice, Dr. Jalonne L. White-Newsome, today announced the Administration is seeking public input on the Environmental Justice Scorecard, while delivering remarks at a public meeting of White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC). CEQ and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) are seeking input on the Environmental Justice Scorecard through a request for information (RFI) that is now available in the Federal Register.
The vision, framework, and outcomes for the first version of the Environmental Justice Scorecard, on which the RFI is seeking feedback, were informed by an initial set of recommendations that the WHEJAC provided earlier this year. CEQ will continue to look to environmental justice stakeholders for additional recommendations on how to develop the Scorecard, including on metrics or indicators that could be used to assess the Federal government’s efforts on environmental justice.
In her remarks, Dr. White-Newsome emphasized the importance of public input to ensure that the Scorecard is developed transparently and with the input of communities.
The Environmental Justice Scorecard will be updated over time, with the goal of creating a durable, robust, and comprehensive platform for assessing the Federal Government’s efforts to secure environmental justice for all. The Scorecard will eventually be available on a publicly accessible, easy-to-use web platform. The first version of the Scorecard will describe the actions that Federal agencies have undertaken, including processes that they have started, since 2021. This baseline is critical to establish because it will enable the measurement of progress over time. The Federal Government will then build on and improve the Scorecard, year after year.
The draft framework for the Environmental Justice Scorecard, on which CEQ and OMB are inviting feedback and comment, would assess the efforts that Federal agencies are taking toward:
- Reducing burdens and harms in communities,
- Delivering benefits to communities, and
- Centering justice in decision making.
The public can now submit comments on the Scorecard until Sunday, October 2, 2022 via the Federal Register.
More about the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment and actions to advance environmental justice can be found here.
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