21 Years Later: Has Executive Order 12898 (entitled Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-income Populations) worked?

Executive Order (EO) 12898 (entitled Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-income Populations) was promulgated by President Clinton 21 years ago. EO12898 mandates that federal agencies consider and reduce actions that will have a disproportionately high and adverse health or environmental effect on minority and low-income populations. EO12898 also requires each agency develop a strategy for implementing environmental justice. EO12898 has three purposes: (1) to promote nondiscrimination in federal actions affecting health and the environment; (2) to provide minority and low-income communities better access to environmental and health information; and (3) to promote public participation in minority and low-income communities regarding federal action that could negatively impact the environment and hence health.

We used principles of legal epidemiology to conduct policy surveillance using established protocols to examine the impact of EO 12898 on public health law (including environmental laws and regulation). We began by collecting documents referencing EO 12898 using LEXIS and Regulations.gov. In the initial examination we took a random sampling across all agencies (from the promulgation of 12898 until February 1, 2014) and reviewed every tenth document against preset codes using LawAtlas WorkBench. Coders crosschecked each other’s work to determine consistency.  Next, we evaluated the actions of US EPA, US DOI and USCG from February 1, 2014 through February 1, 2015 to consider how EO12898 impacted specifically environmental regulation. Our review concluded that there was no evidence that EO 128988 had altered proposed environmental or health regulations or significantly improved environmental injustices. Across the board, federal agencies treated EO 12898 as boilerplate needed complete OMB review.