The Department of Justice announced a trio of major environmental justice actions on Thursday, including the launch of a new office and the resurrection of a popular enforcement tool scrapped during the Trump administration.
A “comprehensive environmental justice enforcement strategy” was issued alongside the Justice Department’s first-ever Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ), Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference.
Supplemental environmental projects, or SEPs, will also be brought back through an interim final rule. Once popular as an enforcement tool, SEPs were scrapped under President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency as a means to settle industry ...