White House Announces New ‘Ocean Justice Strategy’

On June 7, 2023, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published a request for information (RFI) in the Federal Register seeking input on its planned Ocean Justice Strategy (the “Strategy”). The RFI describes the Strategy as an effort to integrate environmental justice principles into ocean-related activities of the federal government. The Strategy could have wide-ranging impacts on the development of ocean energy resources.

The Strategy is an expansion of the Biden-Harris administration’s environmental justice efforts, which have included the development of new policies and the inclusion of environmental justice considerations in rulemakings. According to the RFI, the Strategy will “propose equitable and just practices to advance safety, health, and prosperity for communities residing near the ocean, the coasts, and the Great Lakes and for the whole country.” To that end, the Strategy will assess how the federal government should define ocean justice, identify barriers to and opportunities for ocean justice, describe how ocean justice should apply to the scientific enterprise of knowledge building, and determine how ocean justice should apply to access to and management of the ocean, coasts, and Great Lakes.

Responses to the RFI may be provided on or before July 24, 2023, via the Federal eRulemaking Portal.

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