Implementing the executive order of environmental justice at the US Department of Energy
- Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
- Clark Atlanta Univ., GA (United States)
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
Environmental justice has grown out of a grassroots movement aimed at forging links between environmental decision-making, civil rights, and social justice. Public interest in environmental justice translates into the application of community organizing, coalition-building, and legal strategies developed in the civil rights movement to address a disproportionate burden of risk and exposure to pollution borne by low-income and minority communities. Currently, public interest activities in the US are most concerned with siting polluting facilities in low-income and minority communities, with the slow pace of contamination clean-up in these communities, and with the way in which environmental planning decisions are made. The federal response to these activities has included several pieces of proposed Congressional legislation (none of which have been enacted to date), and an Executive Order issued in February 1994 (Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in minority Populations and Low Income Populations), directing each agency of the executive branch to determine whether administrative changes are needed to promote environmental justice goals. This paper reports on efforts undertaken to date by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to implement the Executive order. While DOE faces relatively few decisions about siting new facilities outside its current installations, in recent years the Department has begun a massive environmental restoration and waste management challenge. In addition the Department is responsible for carrying out the nation`s energy policy, which allocates economic and environmental benefits and burdens.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC06-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 102519
- Report Number(s):
- PNL-SA-26115; CONF-9506115-11; ON: DE95015804
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 20. National Association of Environmental Professionals annual conference and exposition: environmental challenges - the next twenty years, Washington, DC (United States), 10-13 Jun 1995; Other Information: PBD: Jun 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Addressing environmental justice under the National Environment Policy Act at Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico
Environmental justice at the Savannah River Site