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April 21 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday aimed at helping disadvantaged communities protect against disproportionate environmental pollution. "In two years, we're making real progress in the most ambitious environmental justice agenda in history," Biden said in remarks at the White House before signing the order.
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"With this executive order, we'll go even further. We will include communities that have been denied basic security, basic dignity that comes from having clean air, clean water, and clean energy jobs and environmental justice."
Biden said environmental issues have been close to his heart for a long time, recalling how he grew up in Claymont, Del., on the Pennsylvania state line at a time when there were more oil refineries there than in Houston.
"You would turn on the windshield wipers and there would be an oil slick on the window -- not a joke," Biden said. "And how many folks across the country have had similar experiences?"
He said he believes that's one reason he had childhood asthma.
Biden said that when he became president, he made it a priority to meet with environmental justice leaders, and he described what some communities struggling for environmental justice are experiencing.
"People living near factories, seeing the paint on their cars literally peel off because the air was so corrosive. Imagine being a parent, scared to death about what the air, the rain was going to do to your kids."
Biden said many disadvantaged communities are struggling with toxic environmental issues in their communities.
"Landfills and garbage incinerators located right in the middle of communities, drinking water contaminated by radon and arsenic. This kind of environmental injustice goes against everything we stand for as a nation, but it continues to exist," Biden said.
He said he's also asking Congress for $500 million to help protect the Amazon rainforest from deforestation.
Biden said the $370 billion investment through the Inflation Reduction Act to address environmental climate change is the biggest such investment ever.
Friday's order, signed ahead of Earth Day on Saturday, was primarily intended to address a legacy of institutional discrimination, which has led to underinvestment in climate infrastructure and other critical services in many disadvantaged areas.
The order will immediately work to reduce toxic pollution and deliver cleaner air and water to these areas to reduce the risk of asthma, cancer and other health-related issues, while creating better access to safe and affordable housing, green spaces and clean-running transportation, the White House said.
It creates an Office of Environmental Justice within the White House Council on Environmental Quality and adds agencies to the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council.
The new office will be led by a yet-to-be-named federal chief environmental justice officer, who will coordinate and implement environmental justice policy across the federal government.
As part of the executive order, all government departments and agencies will also be required to incorporate Biden's environmental goals into their existing protocols as the administration takes a "whole-of-government" approach to environmental justice.
The order includes a provision to prevent disproportionate climate impacts on poor communities and will require federal agencies to notify residents in the event of a toxic spill.
Biden was seeking to strengthen federal engagement with local communities by requiring public meetings to share information on health risks and necessary precautions during environmental emergencies.
The order will also mobilize government agencies to confront existing barriers and injustices, which would open the door to meaningful public participation and give disadvantaged communities a voice in federal decision-making, the White House said.
The order was intended to target the illegal practice of redlining, in which banks and financial institutions refuse to provide credit services or mortgages to people from communities of color.
Biden is also directing his agencies to identify and address any loopholes in research related to environmental justice and to coordinate a strategy for identifying and filing environmental justice data. The agencies are also required to update existing environmental strategic plans to match up with Biden's goals.
The Environmental Protection Agency was also set to release a national strategy to combat plastic pollution and its disparate impact on disadvantaged communities, the White House said.
The announcement of Biden's executive order was timed to coincide with Earth Week, during which Vice President Kamala Harris and other Cabinet officials will hold several events to announce progress being made under the president's domestic agenda.
The Investing in America initiative has created new clean energy jobs, lowered industrial costs and advanced climate goals and conservation, while "strengthening communities that for too long were left behind or left out," the White House said.
The latest environmental action builds on Executive Order 14008 -- signed days after Biden took office in 2021 -- which ramped up federal climate efforts as the most pressing matter facing U.S. foreign policy and national security.
Efforts to curtail the climate crisis have gained steam around the world, with numerous climate summits and Biden forming the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate in April 2021 to help galvanize the response.
Friday's executive action aligns with Biden's broader climate agenda, which calls for a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and net-zero vehicle emissions by no later than 2050.
Also this week, Biden announced $1 billion to help developing countries address emerging environmental concerns during a global climate forum at the White House.
