A New Era - but Hard Work Ahead

• Author: Vernice Miller-Travis
• Position: Executive Vice President Metropolitan Group
• Pages: 45-45

MAY/JUNE 2021 | 45

Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, May/June 2021.

Copyright © 2021, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

Sidebar

SI DE BAR

Inever dared to imagine a period

of government commitment to

environmental justice like the

one we are currently experiencing.

Following through will of course

be the measure of the new ad-

ministration, but for now we can

celebrate that President Biden has

signed a series of executive orders

charging the federal government

-

ling the climate crisis, addressing

public health inequities, and more.

Executive Order 13985 reads:

“The federal government should

pursue a comprehensive approach

to advancing equity for all.” It

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advancing equity, civil rights, racial

justice, and equal opportunity is

the responsibility of the whole of

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cally includes “people of color and

others who have been historically

underserved, marginalized, and

adversely affected by persistent

poverty and inequality.”

Observers could not miss the

symbolism of the president’s sign-

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is serious about attacking racial

inequities at their foundation and

across the whole of the federal

government.

Also on January 20, President

Biden signed Executive Order

13990, which is titled “Protecting

Public Health and the Environment

and Restoring Science to Tackle the

Climate Crisis.” While noting the

government’s historical role in envi-

ronmental protection, it observes,

“Where the federal government

has failed to meet that commit-

ment in the past, it must advance

environmental justice.” Not only

is the president mandating gains

in overall public health, such as

reducing exposure to dangerous

chemicals, Biden promises “to

hold polluters accountable, includ-

ing those who disproportionately

harm communities of color and

low-income communities.” Indeed,

his administration will “prioritize

both environmental justice and the

creation of the well-paying union

jobs necessary to deliver on these

goals.”

Heretofore we’d focused on

broad-based environmental policy

discussions while working to insert

the term environmental justice

into the federal government’s

lexicon. We worked hard over de-

cades to see the incorporation of

concepts like disproportionate and

cumulative impacts, environmen-

tally overburdened communities,

and enforcement of civil rights

protections against racial discrimi-

nation by recipients of federal en-

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We also worked to include

justice and equity considerations

in the reauthorization of various

bedrock environmental statutes

and their implementing regulations

piece by piece. But this adminis-

tration seems intent on centering

racial and environmental justice

as among its base organizing prin-

ciples. Not in a piecemeal fashion,

but in a holistic manner. A “whole

of government approach” is one of

Biden’s talismans in attacking the

country’s severest problems.

Indeed, a “government-wide

approach” is a section header for

Executive Order 14008: “Tack-

ling the Climate Crisis at Home

and Abroad,” signed a week after

inauguration. In it, the administra-

tion promises, “We must listen

to science — and act. We must

strengthen our clean air and water

protections. We must hold pollut-

ers accountable for their actions.

We must deliver environmental

justice in communities all across

America.”

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of all is the $2 trillion infrastruc-

ture package that President Biden

put on the table. It calls for big

investments in modernizing our

water systems, our transportation

system (including public transit),

ports, energy, and so on. Here too

there is a stated goal to rewrite

wrongs communities of color have

borne from past major infrastruc-

ture projects that destroyed or

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borhoods. Chief among these is

replacing all antiquated leaded

drinking water lines across the na-

tion.

There’s so much more I’m leav-

ing out, but I will close where I

began: it’s a new day. Now the real

work of turning words on paper

into action begins.

A New Era — but Hard Work Ahead

“e president is addressing

environmental justice with a

‘whole of government approach,’

one of Biden’s talismans in

attacking the country’s severest

problems”

Vernice Miller-Travis

Executive Vice President

Metropolitan Group