Biden administration signals early commitment to enforcing environmental laws.
Byline: Michaela Paukner, mpaukner@wislawjournal.com
On a frigid Tuesday in mid-February, Tony Gibart and members of his team at Midwest Environmental Advocates gathered for a photograph on the shores of Lake Monona, just a few blocks from the nonprofit firm's Madison office.
The setting was a fitting illustration of MEA's legal advocacy work, which concentrates on environmental protections and justice. The February polar vortex and its dangerously cold temperatures were among the most extreme instances of winter weather in years, according to meteorologists at the National Weather Service, and a result of climate change caused by humans.
President Joe Biden and his administration are redoubling their efforts to combat climate change and the disproportionate harm it causes to marginalized communities. Biden signed a series of climate-related executive orders on Jan. 27 meant to move the U.S. from fossil fuels to clean energy.
The Biden Administration's goals include conserving 30% of U.S. lands and waters in the next 10 years, eliminating pollution from fossil fuel in the power sector by 2035 and from the overall economy by 2050, and directing agencies to help low-income and minority communities living closest to sources of pollution.
Gibart, MEA executive director, said the orders suggest a commitment to environmental justice and show where the government will stand on enforcing environmental law in the next four years.
"The fact that the Department of Justice, the attorney general and the federal government will be looking to defend and uphold laws that address climate changes is significant, rather than oppose them or try to undermine them, as with the previous administration," Gibart said.
Priority on environmental justice
Environmental justice seeks to ensure all people have access to safe living conditions, regardless of their race, color, national origin or income. President Bill Clinton first made environmental justice a priority of the Environmental Protection Agency's work in 1994, but it didn't have the significant benefit many people hoped for, said UW Law Professor Steph Tai.
Tai, who teaches courses on environmental law and environmental justice, said Biden's executive order is more forceful than Clinton's and lists concrete steps that government agencies need to take to achieve his goals. One such measure directs agencies to review likely the environmental-justice effects of their activities and report their findings. The...
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