On Friday, just in time for Earth Day, the Biden administration announced the signing of a new executive order that the president claims will embed “environmental justice into the work of federal agencies to achieve real, measurable progress that communities can count on.” As part of that new executive order, a new White House Office of Environmental Justice will be created.
So-called environmental justice is at the core of the new order and, as with everything in our new “woke” world, combating racism will be at the core of the new office’s mission.
“For far too long, communities across our country have faced persistent environmental injustice through toxic pollution, underinvestment in infrastructure and critical services, and other disproportionate environmental harms often due to a legacy of racial discrimination including redlining,” a White House “fact sheet” claimed. “These communities with environmental justice concerns face even greater burdens due to climate change.”
The new order supposedly looks to ensure that, among other things, people of all colors and creeds will have cleaner air and water; reduced risks from asthma, cancer, and other health problems associated with the environment; and the benefits of clean transportation and housing.
“With this action, the President is working to ensure that all people — regardless of race, background, income, ability, Tribal affiliation, or zip code — can benefit from the vital safeguards enshrined in our nation’s foundational environmental and civil rights laws,” the fact sheet claims.
The new White House office will be headed by an as-yet unnamed federal chief environmental justice officer, who will be tasked with the responsibility of coordinating environmental justice policies across the entire federal government.
Biden announced the new order in a Rose Garden ceremony aligned with a celebration of Earth Day, the environmentalist holy day first pushed by Wisconsin Democrat Gaylord Nelson in 1970.
At the ceremony, the president was his usual silver-tongued self, completely mangling the name of Brenda Mallory, the chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Eventually, the teleprompter kicked in and Biden was able to explain his new executive order.
“Under this order, environmental justice will become the responsibility of every single federal agency — I mean, every single federal agency,” Biden told a crowd of media and assorted climate activists.
“Every federal agency must take into account environmental health impacts on communities and work to prevent those negative impacts. Environmental justice will be the mission of the entire government woven directly into how we work with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments,” Biden added.
The president chided congressional Republicans for not doing enough to support his climate-friendly initiatives.
“Imagine seeing all this happen — the wildfires, the storms, the floods — and doing nothing about it,” Biden said. “Imagine taking all these clean energy jobs away from working class folks all across America. Imagine turning your back on all those moms and dads living in towns poisoned by pollution and telling them, ‘Sorry, you’re on your own.’ We can’t let that happen.”
But many were skeptical that the new executive order would be of much use.
Daniel Turner, of Power the Future, an organization that advocates for energy workers, accused Biden of using racism to, in effect, supercharge the climate movement.
“The reason why the Biden administration introduced this new effort for justice is because they know as soon as you introduce race into any argument it shuts up the other side,” Turner told Newsmax. “There’s no appetite in America for Biden’s green agenda so they have to use either the coercive power of the regulatory agencies to shove it through, or they have to use things like racial issues to try to silence your opposition.”
“Congresswoman [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez [D-N.Y.] introduced the Green New Deal again, just today,” Turner added. “And you say ‘why didn’t you introduce it five months ago when you had both chambers of Congress?’ Because they didn’t want to introduce it. It’s not about actually accomplishing anything, it’s just about power and optics.”
It’s also about expanding an already-bloated federal government with yet another White House office of whatever buzzword they’re using this week to justify more government salaries of like-minded bureaucrats to push globalist agenda items.
