[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 206 (Tuesday, October 25, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Page 66087]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-27505]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR


Request for Comments Under Executive Order 12898

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary of Policy, Labor.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Labor (DOL or Department) is committed to 
Environmental Justice (EJ). President Obama has renewed agencies' 
environmental justice planning by reinvigorating Executive Order 12898 
(EO 12898), which tasked several Federal agencies with making 
environmental justice part of their mission. The agencies were directed 
to do so by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, the 
disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental 
effects of their programs, policies, and activities on minority and 
low-income populations. In August 2011, agencies listed in EO 12898 
signed a Memorandum of Understanding (EJ MOU), which, among other 
things, commits agencies to develop a final Environmental Justice 
Strategy. The purpose of this notice is to invite public comment on how 
the Department of Labor can address environmental justice through its 
programs, policies, regulations or reporting requirements.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before November 18, 2011.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments through http://dolenvironmentaljustice.ideascale.com/.
    All comments will be available for public inspection at http://dolenvironmentaljustice.ideascale.com/.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: E. Christi Cunningham, Associate 
Assistant Secretary for Regulatory Policy, U.S. Department of Labor, 
200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Room S-2312, Washington, DC 20210, 
[email protected], (202) 693-5959; (this is not a toll-free 
number). Individuals with hearing impairments may call 1-800-877-8339 
(TTY/TDD).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Executive Order 12898 did not create a new 
legal remedy. As an internal management tool of the Executive Branch, 
the Order directs Federal agencies to put in place procedures and take 
actions to make achieving environmental justice part of their basic 
mission. Former President Clinton explained that Federal agencies have 
the responsibility to promote nondiscrimination in Federal programs 
substantially affecting human health and the environment. Accordingly, 
agencies must implement actions to identify and address 
disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental 
effects of their programs, policies, and activities on minority and 
low-income populations and federally-recognized Indian tribes. The 
Department views Environmental Justice from a workplace training, 
health and safety perspective. The Department is developing an 
Environmental Justice Strategy that is in line with the mission of the 
Department and Secretary Solis' vision for the future: good jobs for 
everyone. The vision of good jobs for everyone includes ensuring that 
workplaces are safe and healthy; helping workers who are in low-wage 
jobs or out of the labor market find a path into middle-class jobs; and 
helping middle-class families remain in the middle-class. The 
Department's Environmental Justice Strategy focuses on agencies 
directly involved with worker training (the Employment Training 
Administration (ETA)), and health and safety issues (the Occupational 
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health 
Administration (MSHA)).
    Request for Comments: As part of our development of the DOL 
Environmental Justice Strategy, we are soliciting public comment. Your 
input is important to us. Please provide responses that are supported 
with specific examples and data, where possible.
    This request for public input will inform development of the 
Department of Labor's draft Environmental Justice Strategy. To 
facilitate receipt of the information, the Department has created an 
Internet portal specifically designed to capture your input and 
suggestions, http://dolenvironmentaljustice.ideascale.com/. The portal 
contains a series of questions designed to gather information on how 
DOL can best meet the requirements of the Executive Order. The portal 
is open to receive comments through November 18, 2011.
    Questions for the Public: The Department of Labor intends the 
questions on the portal to represent a starting point for discussion of 
the draft Strategic Plan. The questions are meant to initiate public 
dialogue, and are not intended to restrict the issues that may be 
raised or addressed. The questions were developed with the intent to 
probe a range of areas.
    When addressing these questions, the Department of Labor requests 
that commenters identify with specificity the program, policy, 
regulation or reporting requirement at issue, providing legal 
citation(s) where available. The Department also requests that 
submitters provide, in as much detail as possible, an explanation of 
why a program, policy, regulation or reporting requirement should be 
modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed as well as specific 
suggestions of ways the Department of Labor can better achieve 
environmental justice. Whenever possible, please provide empirical 
evidence and data to support your response.
    The Department of Labor is issuing this request solely to seek 
useful information as it develops its plan. While responses to this 
request do not bind the Department of Labor to any further actions 
related to the response, all submissions will be made available to the 
public on http://dolenvironmentaljustice.ideascale.com/.

    Authority: Executive Order 12898, ``Federal Actions to Address 
Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income 
Populations,'' February 11, 1994. 59 FR 7629 (Feb. 16, 1994).

    Dated: October 12, 2011.
William E. Spriggs,
Assistant Secretary for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2011-27505 Filed 10-24-11; 8:45 am]
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