EPA Seeks Public Comment on Draft Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis

EPA Seeks Public Comment on Draft Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis

EPA is releasing for public comment Draft Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis. The purpose of this draft guidance is to provide EPA analysts with technical information on how to consider environmental justice (EJ) in regulatory analyses. This draft guidance takes into account EPA’s past experience in integrating environmental justice into the rulemaking process, and underscores EPA’s ongoing commitment to ensuring the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

This draft guidance complements the Interim Guidance on Considering Environmental Justice During the Development of an Action, issued in July 2010, which provides direction on when EJ should be considered during the rulemaking process, and begins to address the issue of how to do so in an analytical fashion.

The EPA will conduct a 60 day public comment period on the draft guidance from May 9 to July 8, 2013.

You can view and comment on the draft technical guidance at Regulations.gov (Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OA-2013-0320):

http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=EPA-HQ-OA-2013-0320

Additionally, EPA is hosting two public informational webinars to discuss the details of the proposed technical guidance:

May 29, 2013, 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. ET

https://epa.connectsolutions.com/r4nnz6umjci/

1-866-299-3188
2025650035#

June 6, 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. ET

https://epa.connectsolutions.com/r8fs6ctfovg/
1-866-299-3188
2025650035#

Note: If prompted, webinar participants should use the "Enter as a Guest" option.

This effort is an important initiative under Plan EJ 2014, EPA’s road map for carrying out the Administrator’s priority on environmental justice.

For Additional Information or Questions:

If you have questions about the federal register notice or webinars that EPA is hosting, please submit your questions to maguire.kelly or eley.carlton.

For more information about the Draft Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis under Plan EJ 2014, please visit:

http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/plan-ej/rulemaking.html