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 includes 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 does not impose new legal requirements and is not legally enforceable, it marks the first time OAR has provided guidance on how to incorporate EJ and civil rights concerns in permit applications and evaluations. Click here to read the permitting principles that EPA had set out for considering environmental justice.