On January 27, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. Section 223 of that EO establishes the Justice40 Initiative, which directs 40% of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments – including investments in clean energy and energy efficiency; clean transit; affordable and sustainable housing; training and workforce development; the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution; and the development of clean water infrastructure – to flow to disadvantaged communities (DACs).

Justice40 Implementation at DOE

On July 20, 2021, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released Interim Implementation Guidance for the Justice40 Initiative, M-21-28 (OMB Interim Guidance), which has guided the Department’s work on Justice40 along with relevant statutory authorities.

Based on stakeholder engagement, priorities identified by White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC), and additional research, the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity identified eight policy priorities to guide DOE’s implementation of Justice40:

1. Decrease energy burden in disadvantaged communities (DACs).
2. Decrease environmental exposure and burdens for DACs
3. Increase parity in clean energy technology (e.g., solar, storage) access and adoption in DACs.
4. Increase access to low-cost capital in DACs.
5. Increase clean energy enterprise creation and contracting (MBE/DBE) in DACs.
6. Increase clean energy jobs, job pipeline, and job training for individuals from DACs.
7. Increase energy resiliency in DACs.
8. Increase energy democracy in DACs.

Defining DACs

A unified, comprehensive definition of disadvantaged communities (DACs) is important for determining where benefits of climate and energy investments are or are not currently accruing, and for determining eligibility for future Justice40-related investments. 

Interim Guidance on Defining DACs

OMB Interim Guidance defines a community as either: 

• a group of individuals living in geographic proximity (such as census tract),
• or a geographically dispersed set of individuals (such as migrant workers or Native Americans), where either type of group experiences common conditions. 

DOE Working Definition of DACs

The DOE working definition for DACs has been developed by an internal and external collaborative research process and includes data for thirty-six (36) indicators collected at the census tract level. These 36 indicators can be grouped across the following categories (numbers in parenthesis show how many indicators fall in that category):

• Fossil Dependence (2)
• Energy Burden (5)
• Environmental and Climate Hazards (10)
• Vulnerability (socioeconomic, housing burden, transportation burdens, etc.) (19)

These indicators were selected based on a review of ten existing indices of disadvantage, recommendations from the WHEJAC, feedback from other jurisdictions designing similar energy justice programs (e.g., New York, California), stakeholder outreach, and interagency collaboration on the development of eligibility criteria for DOE’s Communities Local Energy Action Program (Communities LEAP).

Methodology to Identify Geographic DACs

Balancing both data reliability and locally specific information, DOE selected census tracts for the spatial unit used to define a geographic community. In many locations, a census tract is akin to a neighborhood. In more rural locations, a census tract may comprise an entire county. To identify the census tracts that could be considered DACs, the Justice40 team took four main steps: 

1. For each census tract, we calculated the percentile values for each of the 36 indicators. 
2. We summed the percentiles across the indicators to create a score for each tract. Each indicator is given equal weight. The final scores for each tract could range from 0 to 36, where 36 would represent the largest disadvantage. 
3. Based on the score, we select the top 20 percent of census tracts in each state. This ensures that every state is represented.
4. To ensure wealthier locations are not inadvertently included, DAC eligibility is further restricted based on income. A census tract selected in step 3 is identified as a DAC if at least 30% of households:
   1. are at or below 200% of Federal Poverty Level and/or
   2. are considered low-income households by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), defined as making 80% of area median income.

Tribal Lands and U.S. Territories

Federally recognized tribal land and U.S. territories in their entirety are categorized as DACs in accordance with OMB Interim Guidance “common conditions” definition of communities.

Tribal land is defined from the 2021 census boundaries for American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian lands (U.S. Census Bureau, 2021). U.S. territories - Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, Virgin Islands, and Northern Marianas - use the same vintage as the ACS data (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019).
 

Nationwide, 13,581 census tracts were identified as DACs using this methodology (18.6% of 73,056 total U.S. census tracts).

The geospatial data and an excel spreadsheet of the underlying data are available below.

Download the DACs Geospatial Data Here

Download the DACs Excel Spreadsheet Here

DACs on the Energy Justice Dashboard (BETA)

The DOE Energy Justice Dashboard (BETA), which tracks DOE-specific investments and benefits related to the Justice40 Initiative, includes a DACs Equity Layer for further exploration and visualization of DACs.

Access the Energy Justice Dashboard (BETA) Here.

Indicators and Data Sources for DOE Definition of Disadvantaged Communities

Data Sources

1. Center for Neighborhood Technology. (2017). H + T Index Methods.
2. Esri. (2019). USA Parks. Retrieved from https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=578968f975774d3fab79fe56c8c90941
3. Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization. (2021). Initial Report to the President on Empowering Workers Through Revitalizing Energy Communities. (April).
4. U.S. Census Bureau. (2019). American Community Survey (ACS) 5 Year Estimates 2015-2019.
5. U.S. Census Bureau. (2021). TIGER/Line Shapefile, Nation, U.S., American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian (AIANNH) Areas. Retrieved from https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2021/AIANNH/
6. U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration. (2021). Indicators of Broadband Need. Retrieved from https://broadbandusa.ntia.doc.gov/resources/data-and-mapping
7. U.S. Department of Energy. (2018). Low-Income Energy Affordability Data (LEAD) Tool. Retrieved January 6, 2022, from /eere/slsc/low-income-energy-affordability-data-lead-tool
8. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Cybersecurity Energy Security and Emergency Response. (2021). Electric Disturbance Events (Form OE-417) Annual Summaries.
9. U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2021). National Risk Index. Retrieved January 6, 2022, from https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/
10. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2019). Continuum of Care GIS Tools. Retrieved January 6, 2022, from https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/coc/gis-tools/
11. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2021). EJSCREEN: Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool. Retrieved May 5, 2021, from https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen
12. USDA ERS - Food Access Research Atlas. (2021). Retrieved January 6, 2022, from https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas/

Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST)

Public feedback is being solicited for a brand new tool that was recently released by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) aims to help Federal agencies identify DACs as part of the Justice40 Initiative.

Feedback is being accepted through May 25, 2022  and will help refine the tool to ensure that everyone is receiving the benefits intended from Federal programs. DOE intends to use this tool in its implementation of the Justice40 initiative after it is released out of beta and we encourage interested stakeholders to provide feedback to CEQ on the tool.

While CEJST is still in beta, DOE is using its Working Definition of DACs, consistent with OMB Interim Guidance and relevant statutory authorities. DOE will use this working DACs definition to ask applicants to Justice40-covered programs to identify how their projects benefit DACs.

Additional Resources

• DOE Blog Post on How Energy Justice, Presidential Initiatives, and Executive Orders Shape Equity at DOE
• DOE Blog Post on Justice40 Initiative is Key DOE Focus at Waste Management Symposia 
• DOE Blog Post Baker Details Ambitious Effort to Remedy Environmental, Energy Injustice
• White House Blog Post on Delivering on Justice40
• White House Blog Post on The Path to Achieving Justice40
• White House Publishes Draft Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool
• OMB Interim Guidance for the Justice40 Initiative