This project aims to support BOEM’s effort to establish “best practices” for its Environmental Justice (EJ) analyses and communications.
BOEM integrates EJ directives into its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) processes, assessments, and tribal consultations.
Thus,
its purpose is to robustly address Executive Orders 12898 and 14008 which direct Federal agencies to consider and communicate the potential disproportionate effects of their actions on low income, minority, and indigenous populations.
Renewable energy activities have become a potential new reality for the Federal OCS in the Gulf of Mexico with BOEM’s first wind energy lease auction scheduled for December 202 2. Thus, the project’s purpose is to inform our EJ assessments for both conventional and renewable energy development in the Gulf Region.
Also, the White House Environmental Justice Executive Council (WEJEC) and the Department of the Interior (DOI) have indicated that EJ analyses should be expanded, when appropriate, to include such issues as social and economic equity and climate change.
Thus, the project aims to explore effective ways for BOEM’s GOMR to address these issues under EJ.
In sum, the purpose of this project is to support BOEM decisionmaking regarding EJ-related processes, determinations, and outreach.