"U.S. Attorneys to Step Onto Environmental Justice’s Front Lines"

"A new Justice Department directive ordering each of the nation’s 93 U.S. attorneys to designate an environmental justice coordinator will bring a sharper focus to the issue, former U.S. attorneys tell Bloomberg Law.

That order is almost certain to be carried out meticulously, because U.S. attorneys “want to be well loved and superstars in their community, and they want their boss in D.C. to regard them highly,” said Ronald Tenpas, a former U.S. attorney in Illinois under President George W. Bush.

“So if you tell them, ‘Every six months you’ll be forced to report on what you did on EJ,’ that’s probably going to affect behavior,” said Tenpas, who also was an assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland and Florida under Bush and President Bill Clinton.

The interagency memo circulated by Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta directs the point person in each U.S. attorney’s office to find areas of concern in their regions and set up and publicize a procedure for the public to report environmental justice concerns."

Stephen Lee reports for Bloomberg Environment May 10, 2022.