{"id":1465533,"date":"2022-05-05T17:14:56","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T21:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1465533"},"modified":"2022-05-05T17:15:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T21:15:00","slug":"doj-establishes-office-of-environmental-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-establishes-office-of-environmental-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ Establishes \u2018Office Of Environmental Justice\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdoj-establishes-office-of-environmental-justice%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1465533&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/05\/78E61ACE-CE54-4E21-99E0-061659561B65-scaled.jpeg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The Department of Justice is establishing a new \u201cOffice of Environmental Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Attorney General <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/speech\/attorney-general-merrick-b-garland-delivers-remarks-launching-comprehensive-environmental\">Merrick Garland<\/a> made the announcement at a press conference with EPA Administrator Michael Regan Thursday. Garland said that the new office, which will also be known by the initialism OEJ, would \u201coversee and help guide the Justice Department\u2019s wide-ranging environmental justice efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The office was created as part of the Department\u2019s \u201ccomprehensive environmental justice enforcement strategy,\u201d in compliance with the Biden administration\u2019s January 2021 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/presidential-actions\/2021\/01\/27\/executive-order-on-tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad\/\">executive order<\/a> directing the Attorney General to develop such a strategy in conjunction with the EPA. Garland said that OEJ would initially be led by Acting Director Cynthia Ferguson, an attorney from the Environmental Enforcement Section of the DOJ\u2019s Environment and Natural Resources Division.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough violations of our environmental laws can happen anywhere, communities of color, indigenous communities, and low-income communities often bear the brunt of the harm caused by environmental crime, pollution, and climate change,\u201d Garland said in remarks at the conference. \u201cIn partnership with EPA, our new OEJ will serve as the central hub for our efforts to advance our comprehensive environmental justice enforcement strategy. In our environmental efforts, we will prioritize the cases that will have the greatest impact on the communities most overburdened by environmental harm. And together with our Civil Rights Division, Office for Access to Justice, Office of Tribal Justice, and United States Attorneys\u2019 Offices, OEJ will prioritize meaningful and constructive engagement with the communities most affected by environmental crime and injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Associate Attorney General <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/speech\/associate-attorney-general-vanita-gupta-delivers-remarks-launching-comprehensive\">Vanita Gupta<\/a> outlined how the OEJ would be part of implementing the Justice Department\u2019s environmental justice strategy. \u201cThe strategy directs department components to prioritize cases that reduce environmental harms on overburdened and underserved communities, including communities of color, Tribal populations and low-income rural and urban communities,\u201d Gupta said. \u201cTo that end, department components, with the support from the new Office of Environmental Justice, will be tasked with developing protocols to assess the environmental justice impacts of their investigations. We also know that securing environmental justice demands the meaningful involvement of affected communities in the decisions that impact them. So, the strategy directs the new Office of Environmental Justice to work to build deeper connections with communities that are affected by violations of environmental laws.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gupta also said that the broader strategy also directs all 93 United States Attorneys to designate an \u201cenvironmental justice coordinator\u201d to identify \u201careas of concern\u201d within their jurisdictions, and to establish procedures for the public to report them. Gupta added that the strategy would also require the Justice Department to establish \u201cenvironmental justice education programs\u201d and training for personnel.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department\u2019s new office represents the latest example of the Biden administration prioritizing climate change as part of its agenda. The Biden administration announced in January that it was going to spend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/biden-admin-to-spend-more-on-defense-against-climate-change-environmental-justice-than-on-port-and-waterway-supply-chain\">$5.5 billion<\/a> in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to advance \u201cenvironmental justice\u201d by working to \u201cbetter protect communities from climate change, and protect vital ecosystems and the people and businesses throughout the country that rely on them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Biden administration\u2019s budget proposal for fiscal year 2022 would also allocate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/white-house-budget-earmarks-billions-to-defeat-climate-crisis-abroad-as-gas-prices-soar\">$44.9 billion<\/a> to \u201cto tackle the climate crisis,\u201d including $11 billion for international climate spending, particularly in developing countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Justice is establishing a new \u201cOffice of Environmental Justice.\u201dAttorney General Merrick Garland made the announcement at a press conference with EPA Administrator Michael Regan Thursday. Garland said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":1481781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1465533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1465533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1481781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1465533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1465533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1465533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}