President Trump announced the rescission of numerous Executive Orders issued by the Biden administration, including Executive Order 14008 (Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad). The rescission terminates the Justice40 Initiative, the EJ Scorecard, and the Climate & Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), among other Biden EJ initiatives.
Background on Executive Order 14008
Under Order 14008 (the Climate Crisis Executive Order), President Biden established the Justice40 Initiative, which required agencies to direct 40 percent of the “benefits” of federal climate programs to “disadvantaged communities.” The order also required CEQ to create the Climate & Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) to spatially define “disadvantaged communities” based on various climate, public health, transportation, and energy justice indicators. Covered programs included those addressing clean energy investments, transit, affordable and sustainable housing, training and workforce development, remediation and reduction of legacy pollution, and clean water infrastructure.
On May 23, 2022, the White House announced it had released over $29 billion in funding consistent with Justice40, including $500 million to electrify school buses, $1.3 billion to remediate and reduce pollution, and $725 million to reclaim abandoned mine lands.
At the end of the Biden adminsitration, there were at least 518 programs covered by the Justice40 Initiative across 19 agencies. Read the list of covered programs as of November 2023.
On April 21, 2023, the Biden administration released Phase One of the Environmental Justice Scorecard, which provides a baseline assessment of agencies’ EJ-related actions in 2021 and 2022.