OAR issued guidance for the first time to inform regional offices when they should consider environmental justice when issuing permits under the Clean Air Act. The guidance included eight principles encouraging offices to identify and engage early with communities with EJ concerns, and to conduct EJ analyses when a permitting action “may result in disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects on a community”, and act to minimize and mitigate those impacts. While the guidance did not impose new legal requirements and is not legally enforceable, it marked the first time OAR provided guidance on how to incorporate EJ and civil rights concerns in permit applications and evaluations. Read the permitting principles that EPA set out for considering environmental justice.
Federal Environmental Justice Tracker