• Federal Initiatives

    DeFENDING AND ADVANCING CLIMATE JUSTICE POLIcies

    Learn more about our report designed to address potential challenges to climate and environmental justice in the United States under a second Trump Administration.

    LATEST ON FEDERAL POLICY

    • National Environmental Policy Act: Recommendations for environmental justice

      National Environmental Policy Act: Recommendations for environmental justice

      Earlier this summer, the federal Council for Environmental Quality (CEQ) proposed changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that could get us closer to analyzing climate change impacts, addressing the concerns of environmental justice communities, and uplifting the role of Tribal governments.  Most notable are revisions that reinstate many of NEPA’s principles and functions…

    • The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Climate Action Plan, Reviewed

      The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Climate Action Plan, Reviewed

      The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Climate Action Plan, Reviewed President Biden’s January 2021 Executive Order 14008 (Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad) spurred the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to lay out their own Climate Action Plan in November of 2021. The goal of this plan is to ‘address…

    • EPA’s Carbon Pollution Standards: Equity Recommendations from Just Solutions

      EPA’s Carbon Pollution Standards: Equity Recommendations from Just Solutions

      For decades, the burning of fossil fuels at power plants has resulted in adverse public health outcomes for some of the most environmentally-overburdened communities in our country. Black, Indigenous, communities of color and low-income communities breathing in the pollution from these facilities experience disproportionate rates of heart and lung diseases, asthma, bronchitis, a greater number…

    • DOE Guidance for Home Energy Rebates Adopts Recommendations for Equity

      DOE Guidance for Home Energy Rebates Adopts Recommendations for Equity

      On July 27, the Department of Energy released long-awaited guidance for the Home Energy Rebate Programs, outlining requirements applicable to the states and territories that will administer these programs. (Separate guidance is forthcoming for Tribes.) We previously shared our recommendations to DOE to implement the Home Energy Rebates in a way that prioritizes equity and…

    • Federal Debt Ceiling, Environmental Justice Communities and NEPA

      Federal Debt Ceiling, Environmental Justice Communities and NEPA

      After weeks of negotiations and the looming threat of defaulting on our country’s debts, President Biden signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) in May. The FRA ended the federal student loan repayment suspension and expands work requirements for food stamp recipients, which will impact low-income and working-class people the most. What might be less known,…