Indigenous Peoples and the Justice40 Screening Tool
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Keywords: environmental justice, Tribes, screening tools, Justice40, EJSCREEN
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Authors:
Haley Mullen, University of Maryland Department of Geographical Sciences
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Abstract
The Biden-Harris administration has focused considerably on environmental justice, including the Justice40 Initiative and renewed White House Council on Native American Affairs. The Justice40 Initiative aims to deliver at least 40 percent of the benefits of federal investments in climate and energy to disadvantaged communities, including many Tribes. However, the recent White House Tribal Nations Summit Progress Report is unclear in its articulation of how such benefits will be delivered to Tribes under Justice40. Currently, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is developing a new Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) for identifying disadvantaged communities who qualify for Justice40 investments. Executive Order 14008 references how this new screening tool should be based on lessons learned from EJSCREEN. For Tribes, however, EJSCREEN does not adequately represent infrastructure and other environmental justice needs relevant to the goals outlined in Justice40. In this paper, we discuss issues with EJSCREEN that must be addressed in the CEJST. Major gaps in EJSCREEN include ones in data regarding mining, energy extraction, cultural landscapes, meaningful spatial boundaries, and qualitative data in general, as well as the fundamental issue of engaging with Tribes. There are also ethics and sovereignty issues that will make some data unavailable at the national scale, or shortages in US and Tribal capacity to coordinate the formation of datasets. These concerns must be addressed if Tribes are to be accurately represented by the CEJST such that they may fully benefit from Justice40 investments.
Indigenous Peoples and the Justice40 Screening Tool
Category
Virtual Paper Abstract