U.S. EPA Releases Draft Interim Framework for Advancing Consideration of Cumulative Impacts

On November 21, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) published the long awaited draft Interim Framework for Advancing Consideration of Cumulative Impacts. This document, while perhaps meant to fulfill the main priority for the Biden administration to present a way to address environmental justice (EJ) issues on projects, has been repeatedly delayed over struggles about potential scientific and legal issues such an analysis would face. These concerns extend all the way back to 2022 when the Science Advisory Board (SAB) was asked to review and report on gaps and barriers in the science and research to executing a cumulative impact analysis (CIA) and implementing EJ in U.S. EPA programs in general.

Much like the draft Guidelines for Cumulative Risk Assessment Planning and Problem Formulation published by U.S. EPA in June of 2023, The document (which was published jointly by the U.S. EPA Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights and the Office of Land and Emergency Management) does not provide specific steps for an agency to use in a CIA. Instead, the document “provides a shared reference point … as they (regulating agencies) determine when and how to analyze and consider cumulative impacts. The framework is not intended to provide detailed instructions on how to consider cumulative impacts in specific contexts, nor does it set the expectation that the principles and approaches to considering cumulative impacts will be applied in every programmatic context.”

The framework is summarized in the Fact Sheet U.S. EPA provided along with the document. The draft framework describes six principles for U.S. EPA to consider related to EJ:

• Centering cumulative impacts work on improving human health, quality of life, and the environment in all communities.
• Focusing on the disproportionate and adverse burden of cumulative impacts.
• Applying a fit-for-purpose approach to assessing and addressing cumulative impacts.
• Engaging communities and incorporating their lived experience.
• Using available data and information to make decisions and take action.
• Operationalizing and integrating ways to consider and address cumulative impacts.

The stated goals for projects adhering to these principles include:

• Communities are safe, healthy, and thriving.
• All people are protected from disproportionate and adverse environmental health effects and hazards, including cumulative impacts of environmental and other burdens.
• No community bears a disproportionate share of adverse environmental and public health impacts.

U.S. EPA offices and programs are to incorporate the framework “as appropriate, feasible and consistent with applicable law, in ways that reflect programmatic and context-specific needs.” The publication of the document opened a 90-day public comment period, which will extend into the second Trump administration, ending on February 19, 2025.

Ultimately, the framework is not likely to survive the arrival of the incoming Trump administration, which seems likely to gut funding for EJ at the federal level, but it remains to be seen if the states that are most active in EJ adopt some of the recommendations in the document into their state-level EJ programs.

Summary

Overall, the draft Interim Framework for Advancing Consideration of Cumulative Impacts provides a broad description of approaches that a regulating agency might take in order to assess the overall impact of a project on a potentially affected community but does not prescribe direct steps that would be required in such an assessment. While it was expected that the framework would lack specifics, agencies will no doubt still have questions as to whether their approaches are appropriate and whether they will stand up to legal challenges.

ALL4 continues to track developments in EJ closely and will continue to do so as the new administration takes over in 2025 as the focus on EJ programs and policies is likely to transition to the states more so than U.S. EPA. If you have questions or concerns about the EJ policies and requirements in your state, feel free to contact your ALL4 Project Manager or Rich Hamel. We’ll continue to monitor EJ guidance from the states and the tools available to evaluate EJ concerns as they develop. We can also help you evaluate permitting risks, from EJ concerns to regulatory issues, and assist in developing a strategy to make the permitting of your project as efficient as possible.