Today, the White House announced the members of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. The advisory council will provide advice and recommendations to the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council on how to address current and historic environmental injustices, including recommendations for updating Executive Order 12898.
The White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) was established by President Biden’s Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad to fulfill his and Vice President Harris’s commitment to confronting longstanding environmental injustices and to ensuring that historically marginalized and polluted, overburdened communities have greater input on federal policies and decisions.
“We know that we cannot achieve health justice, economic justice, racial justice, or educational justice without environmental justice. That is why President Biden and I are committed to addressing environmental injustice,” said Vice President Harris. “This historic White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council will ensure that our administration’s work is informed by the insights, expertise, and lived experience of environmental justice leaders from across the nation.”
The WHEJAC members will represent a diverse set of geographical regions and will serve in a voluntary capacity.
- LaTricea Adams, Michigan
- Susana Almanza, Texas
- Jade Begay, South Dakota
- Maria Belen-Power, Massachusetts
- Dr. Robert Bullard, Texas
- Tom Cormons, Virginia
- Andrea Delgado, Washington, D.C.
- Catherine Flowers, Alabama
- Jerome Foster, New York
- Kim Havey, Minnesota
- Angelo Logan, California
- Maria Lopez-Nunez, New Jersey
- Harold Mitchell, South Carolina
- Richard Moore, New Mexico
- Rachel Morello-Frosch, California
- Juan Parras, Texas
- Michele Roberts, Washington, D.C.
- Ruth Santiago, Puerto Rico
- Nicky Sheats, New Jersey
- Peggy Shepard, New York
- Carletta Tilousi, Arizona
- Vi Waghiyi, Alaska
- Kyle Whyte, Michigan
- Beverly Wright, Louisiana
- Hli Xyooj, Minnesota
- Miya Yoshitani, California
“This is a historic moment that environmental justice communities have been working toward for decades. President Biden and Vice President Harris are, for the first time ever, bringing the voices, perspectives, and expertise of environmental justice communities into a formal advisory role at the White House,” said Cecilia Martinez, Senior Director for Environmental Justice, CEQ.“The advisory council builds off the important work of EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and will provide input and recommendations to senior leaders across government as this administration works to clean up toxic pollution, create good-paying, union jobs in all communities, and give every child in America the chance to grow up healthy.”
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) will fund and provide administrative support for the WHEJAC.
The first meeting of the WHEJAC will be held virtually tomorrow, March 30, 2021, and will be open to the public.
Please visit the U.S. EPA’s WHEJAC webpage for more information at: www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/white-house-environmental-justice-advisory-council.
The WHEJAC will complement the ongoing work of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC), a federal advisory committee established in 1993 to provide advice and recommendations on EJ issues to the Administrator of the EPA.
More information about NEJAC can be found here: https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/national-environmental-justice-advisory-council
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