Advocates Question Biden Administration’s Promises to Address Environmental Injustices While Supporting Fossil Fuel Projects

At a Department of Energy conference, environmental leaders said justice efforts should be tied to investments in clean energy, not LNG export terminals close to ‘“sacrifice zones” on the Gulf Coast.

WASHINGTON—Environmental justice advocates sharply criticized the Biden administration during the Department of Energy’s Justice Week 2023 conference on Wednesday for approving new export terminals for liquified natural gas on the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Texas, saying pollution from those fossil fuel facilities will further endanger disadvantaged communities. 

At the same time, across town at the White House, Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said on a conference call with community groups and reporters that nearly 470 federal programs with billions of dollars in annual investment were being “reimagined and transformed to meet the Justice40 goal and maximize benefits to disadvantaged communities.”

Justice40 is President Biden’s policy, established by executive order, directing 40 percent of new environmental and energy investments to “disadvantaged communities that have been historically marginalized and overburdened by pollution and underinvestment.” 

Mallory was joined on the call by Tony Reames, principal deputy director of DOE’s Office of State and Community Energy Programs, who said from Detroit that the department is striving to decrease the energy burden, lessen environmental exposures, increase parity in clean energy technology access and adoption in environmental justice communities.