In part 1 of this two-part series we discussed the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's policy and its impact on the environmental justice movement and brownfields cleanup and redevelopment. Part 2 will focus on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s initiative and its collaborative approach to resolving environmental justice concerns.
The EPA’s Environmental Justice Initiative
Plan EJ 2014
In 2011, the EPA updated its environmental justice strategy and issued Plan EJ 2014, which is not a rule or a regulation. The plan was intended to integrate the principle of environmental justice in the EPA decisions related to rulemaking, permitting, compliance, enforcement, and in community-based programs and through interactions with other federal agencies, arguably as directed by Executive Order 12898 described below. Two years later, in February 2013, the EPA released an annual report to detail the progress of the agency toward achieving the goals outlined in the plan.