Council on Environmental Quality, Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool

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Details Disadvantaged communities, disadvantaged status for particular categories of burden
Topics Climate change, economic justice, environment, pollution, clean energy investment
Source Council on Environmental Quality, Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST)
Years Available 2022
Geographies Census Tract (2010)
Public Edition or Subscriber-only Subscriber-only
Download Available yes
For more information https://screeningtool.geoplatform.gov/
Last updated on PolicyMap January 2024

Description:

The Climate and Econmic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) was developed by the Council on Environmental Quality to identify disadvantaged communities that face burdens across eight categories: climate change, energy, health, housing, legacy pollution, transportation, water and wastewater, and workforce development. CEJST is intended to be used for the Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver 40% of certain Federal investments to these disadvantaged communities. Federal investments include clean energy infrastructure, affordable and sustainable housing, and remediation of legacy pollution among others. CEJST combines a number of publicly available national datasets to identify disadvantaged communities as described below.

Disadvantaged Communities

Census tracts are considered disadvantaged if they meet the thresholds for at least one of the CEJST categories of burden OR if they are on land within the boundaries of Federally Recognized Tribes. Meeting one of the CEJST categories of burden requires that a tract be at or above specified thresholds for one or more environmental, climate, housing, health or other burdens AND be at or above the threshold for an associated socioeconomic burden (eg. low income or low educational attainment). Additionally, a census tract that is completely surrounded by disadvantaged communities and is at or above the 50th percentile for low income is also considered disadvantaged.
Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands: For these U.S. territories, the tool uses the following data: unemployment, poverty, low median income, and high school education. These burdens are in the workforce development category. The CEJST uses a slightly different methodology to calculate the relevant percentiles for Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands because the relevant data are from the 2010 American Community Survey, which is not used for the other regions. CEJST uses data from the U.S. Census’s American Community Survey (2015-2019) for all U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. For more information, please access the CEJST Technical Support Document.

Available Data Layers & Indicators (9)
Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) disadvantaged community status, as of 2022.
Disadvantaged status in the climate change category of burden, as of 2022.
Disadvantaged status in the energy category of burden, as of 2022.
Disadvantaged status in the health category of burden, as of 2022.
Disadvantaged status in the housing category of burden, as of 2022.
Disadvantaged status in the legacy pollution category of burden, as of 2022.
Disadvantaged status in the transportation category of burden, as of 2022.
Disadvantaged status in the water and wastewater category of burden, as of 2022.
Disadvantaged status in the workforce development category of burden, as of 2022.