EPA Releases Initial List of Programs Covered Under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative
WASHINGTON - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released an initial list of programs covered under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver 40 percent of the overall benefits of climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, clean water, and other investments to disadvantaged communities. Under Administrator Michael S. Regan’s leadership, EPA has been integral to fulfilling President Biden’s whole-of-government approach to advancing environmental justice and delivering on the President’s Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.
EPA’s initial list includes 72 programs covered by the Justice40 Initiative. These programs range from the agency’s Lead Risk Reduction Program to the newly created Clean School Bus Program, which was established through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. A full list of EPA programs covered by the Justice40 Initiative can be found here.
EPA continues to implement six Justice40 pilot programs – the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, Clean Water State Revolving Fund, Reducing Lead in Drinking Water, Superfund, Brownfields, and Diesel Emissions Reductions Act Program. In addition to these six pilot programs, EPA has identified 66 additional programs that will be covered under the Justice40 Initiative. The agency has committed to not just meet but exceed the 40 percent goal of benefits flowing from investments to disadvantaged communities associated with these programs. To identify existing programs and new programs funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that would be covered under the Justice40 Initiative, EPA used the Interim Implementation Guidance from the White House Office of Management and Budget.
In collaboration with the White House, EPA is in the process of developing benefit methodologies to track and report the benefits going toward disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution and expects to release these methodologies to the public later this year.
In total, hundreds of Federal programs, including programs that were funded or created in the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, are being reimagined and transformed to maximize benefits to disadvantaged communities through the Justice40 Initiative.
The initial list of announced Federal covered programs can be found at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/justice40/
More information on Justice40 at EPA can be found at: https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/justice40-epa