EPA Publishes First-Of-Its-Kind Framework for Considering Cumulative Impacts Across Agency Actions

On November 21, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published Notice of a newly developed draft framework intended to provide all EPA programs with a shared reference point for determining when and how to analyze or consider cumulative impacts—defined broadly to include the totality of exposures to combinations of environmental stressors and their effects on health and quality-of-life outcomes.  Keeping pace with the Biden administration EPA’s environmental justice drive, key goals of the Interim Framework for Advancing Consideration of Cumulative Impacts include empowering EPA to (1) more fully and accurately characterize the realities communities face, (2) pinpoint the levers of decision making and identify opportunities for interventions that improve health and quality of life while advancing equity, and (3) increase meaningful engagement, improve transparency, and center actions on improving health and environmental conditions in communities.

Notably, the Framework asserts such consideration will contribute to EPA’s advancement of long-term goals such as ensuring “[n]o community bears a disproportionate share of adverse environmental and public health impacts.”  And though EPA states that the Framework is not intended to provide detailed instruction or set expectations that cumulative impacts consideration will be used in every decision at EPA, EPA acknowledges that the Framework will guide EPA’s consideration of such impacts in a range of federal activities such as standard setting, permitting, rulemaking, cleanup, emergency response, funding, planning, program oversight for states, territories, and Tribes, or other decision making.

While it remains to be seen whether EPA will finalize the Framework after the administration transition in January—and, indeed, it seems even unlikely—if published, it could drastically alter the Agency’s future approach to a majority of decisions, particularly those decisions resulting in the issuance of a new permit or emissions standard applicable to a community that has historically experienced disproportionate impacts from environmental actions—EPA’s or otherwise.  EPA is accepting comments on the draft Framework through February 19, 2025.

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