The Biden-Harris Administration recently released the first-ever United States Ocean Justice Strategy (the “Strategy”). The Strategy, which was called for in the Administration’s Ocean Climate Action Plan, is intended to advance the Administration’s stated goals to promote environmental justice for communities that rely on the ocean for their cultural, spiritual, economic, food, and recreational needs. It outlines a five-part vision of how the Administration will integrate equity and environmental justice principles into federal ocean activities through overarching goals, principles, and practices to further the goal of “ocean justice.”
The Strategy comes after significant changes by the Administration to its handling of environmental justice concerns. Executive Orders (“EO”) 14091 and 13895 promote advancing equity for all, including underserved, marginalized, and impoverished communities. Relatedly,
EO 14008 established the “Justice40 Initiative,” establishing a goal of 40 percent of Federal investments’ overall benefits dedicated to issues faced by disadvantaged communities, particularly those subject to underinvestment and overburdening by pollution. Building on the Justice40 initiative, EO 14096 directs all administrative agencies to add environmental justice to their missions and to restore and protect a healthy environmental for all people by preventing pollution and addressing climate change, among other matters. Furthermore, two EOs prioritize environmental justice considerations in the Administration’s ocean policies, EO 13547, related to government’s stewardship of the Ocean, Our Coasts, and the Great Lakes, and EO 13840, promulgating an ocean policy with the intent to advance the United States’ economic, security, and environmental interests.
Approximately 40 percent of the United States’ population lives along a coastline of the ocean or Great Lakes (collectively, the “ocean”). The ocean provides the United States with vital benefits including economic activity, sustenance, recreation, and cultural and spiritual wellbeing.
Recognizing the importance of the ocean to communities, as well as the inequities related to access to the ocean’s benefits, the Administration hopes that its Strategy will have a twofold purpose: reflect on past, current, or future ocean impacts, and improve the wellbeing of communities connected to and dependent on the ocean.
Not only are many of the communities located near the coastline or dependent on ocean resources prevented from sharing equitably in the benefits provided by the ocean, but many of these same communities are disproportionately burdened by human activities in and around the ocean. Past racial discrimination and marginalization has also contributed to inequitable investment, siting, and growth of coastal infrastructure such as ports, refineries, and landfills. Moreover, Black, Latino, Indigenous and Native American, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Island coastal populations may be disproportionality affected by environmental health and hazards related from industrial development coastal activities or harmed by environmental impacts such as overfishing.
Furthermore, as oceans are tied closely to climate change, those same communities are disproportionately impacted by extreme weather events and other climate-related threats.
In recognition of the close tie between climate health and the ocean, the Administration in March 2023 released its Ocean Climate Action Plan, which called for the creation of the Ocean Justice Strategy to identify barriers and opportunities to integrate environmental justice principles into federal ocean activities. Following requests for public comments, tribal consultation, roundtables with U.S. Territories and Native Hawaiian organizations, and an Ocean Justice Summit, the Administration released its Ocean Justice Strategy that lays out overarching federal goals, principles, and practices for the Administration hopes will provide long-term, sustainable benefits for people, communities, and the environment.