This screening report is a companion piece to the final Clean Power Plan. In the final Clean Power Plan the EPA has designed an integrative approach that helps to ensure that vulnerable communities are not disproportionately impacted by this rulemaking.¹ The proximity analysis that is outlined in this screening report provides information that states can use in a variety of ways to help to ensure that this rulemaking will not have disproportionate impacts on vulnerable communities. The agency envisions that states can use this information as they engage with communities in the development of their plans, as they work to consider a multi-pollutant approach when devising their plans, help low-income communities access energy efficiency (EE) EE/ renewable energy (RE) and financial assistance programs and asses the impacts of their state plans on potentially overburdened communities.

As outlined in the Clean Power Plan in the Community and Environmental Justice Considerations section (IX) and in the Executive Order 12898 section (XII.J) the proximity analysis included in this report provides detailed demographic information on the communities located within a 3-mile radius of each affected power plant within the United States ². The analysis shows a higher percentage of minority and low-income communities living near power plants than national averages. It is important to note that the impacts of power plant emissions are not limited to a 3-mile radius and the impacts of both potential increases and decreases in power plant emissions can be felt many miles away. The actions that the agency outlines in the final Clean Power Plan were developed in part as a result of the extensive outreach that the agency conducted with communities and other stakeholders throughout the rulemaking process. The EPA recommends that readers of this document also review the Community and Environmental Justice Considerations section of the Clean Power Plan. A copy of the rulemaking is available at: www.epa.gov/cleanpowerplan.

¹ The agency uses “vulnerable” and “overburdened” communities to refer to low-income, minority communities, and indigenous communities.

² The proximity analysis was conducted using the EPA’s environmental justice mapping and screening tool, EJSCREEN.

• EJ Screening Report for the Clean Power Plan (PDF)(126 pp, 13 MB, July 30, 2015)