Agencies Pledge Environmental Justice at White House Meeting

"During a meeting this morning at the White House, the heads of U.S. EPA, the Interior Department, the Transportation Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development agreed to update their environmental justice plans by next fall and to restart a long-dormant panel that was created to address that issue.

The Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice, formed in 1994 by President Clinton under Executive Order 12898, had not convened at the Cabinet level since the middle of the Clinton administration, EPA said today. The agencies will now meet monthly to discuss environmental justice, with their top officials gathering for follow-up Cabinet sessions in April and October of next year. "

Gabriel Nelson report for Greenwire September 22, 2010.