WASHINGTON — President Biden plans Friday to announce the creation of a White House Office of Environmental Justice, one of several actions to address the unequal burden people of color bear as a result of environmental hazards, the White House said.
But Mr Biden, who has indicated he will run for re-election, is also expected to use the opportunity to portray Republicans as extremists who support the fossil fuel industry at the expense of public health and the planet, a spokesman said. White House official. who was not authorized to speak in public.
In a ceremony scheduled for the Rose Garden, the president plans to sign an executive order making environmental justice a focus of every federal agency and requiring agencies to develop plans to address the disproportionate impact of pollution and climate change on minority and tribal communities , and to report on their progress, the White House official said. Mr. Biden will also direct agencies to address gaps in science, data and research related to, among other things, the cumulative effects of pollution on communities of color.
But amid a looming showdown with Republicans over the debt ceiling, Mr Biden also intends to contrast his environmental concerns with what the White House official called “the dangerous vision Speaker McCarthy and his extreme caucus have for our planet, our economy and the public”. health.”
On Monday, Chairman Kevin McCarthy proposed a one-year increase in the debt ceiling, coupled with spending cuts and policy changes, including the repeal of tax breaks for electric vehicles and wind, solar and other clean energy that were central to the Inflation Reduction Act signed by mr. Biden last year. Instead, Mr. McCarthy wants an expansion of fossil fuel production.
The debt limit is expected to be breached as early as July unless Congress decides to raise it.
According to the White House official, Mr. Biden will accuse “extreme MAGA Republicans” of a litany of environmental crimes, from “protecting handouts for big oil companies” to “fighting to make it easier for oil and gas companies to get the air to pollute what we breathe.”
Decades of research have shown that the people most affected by environmental hazards are largely nonwhite and poor.
New studies have also suggested that when it comes to one of the most damaging forms of air pollution — particulate matter or soot — black Americans carry a higher burden than non-Hispanic whites or Asians, regardless of their income level. Research also suggests that black Americans have no political power to block polluting facilities.
Mr. Biden was the first president to make environmental justice, the idea that all people have the right to protection against environmental and health hazards, a core part of the White House agenda. He established a 25-member White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, the first of its kind, and called on all federal agencies to ensure underprivileged communities receive 40 percent of the benefits of federal investments in clean air and water, flood prevention, cleanup of Superfund sites, renewable energy and other improvements.
The executive order also requires agencies to notify nearby communities if a toxic substance is released from a federal facility and hold public meetings to share information about potential health risks.
The White House’s new Office of Environmental Justice is expected to coordinate initiatives within the administration.
Richard Moore, a co-coordinator at the Los Jardines Institute in Albuquerque, NM, and a co-chair of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, said in a statement that the executive order was “an answer to a decades-long call to put justice at the center of in federal policy.”
