WASHINGTON (January 11, 2022) – The co-authors of the Equitable and Just National Climate platform thank Dr. Cecilia Martinez for her outstanding and tireless work at the Council for Environmental Quality (CEQ) to ensure that environmental justice (EJ) communities and EJ concerns are centered in federal policy making. Dr. Martinez’s dedication to our communities has not gone unnoticed. It will be critical that the Biden Administration continue to deliver on its promises to ensure that communities on the frontlines of environmental injustices are not left behind.
In her many months as Senior Director of Environmental Justice at CEQ, Dr. Martinez represented and worked tirelessly for the communities around the country that have historically been left behind and suffered grave environmental injustices.
Dr. Martinez was instrumental in the inception of President Biden’s climate agenda, a historic agenda that centered environmental justice (EJ) in a way no other Administration has done in the past. As part of President Biden’s transition team, Dr. Martinez laid the groundwork for what an equitable and just vision of climate action can look like in a presidential agenda. Throughout President Biden’s first year as president, Dr. Martinez continued to create a powerful foundation at CEQ to ensure that EJ communities and EJ concerns remain at the center of federal policy making every step of the way. She also helped raise the public’s understanding of the interconnected nature of social, economic, and environmental justice, and the need for holistic solutions.
The appointment of Dr. Martinez to this new position at CEQ was historic, and we hope that CEQ can continue to uphold that dedication to EJ looking ahead. It’s vital that CEQ continues to provide more resources to support EJ priorities in President Biden’s administration.
The work is far from over: we must continue our fight to ensure that federal climate policy delivers benefits for all communities, including those that are on the frontlines of environmental hazards. It will be critical that the Biden Administration continues to honor its promises to environmental justice communities. We commit to continue our support of CEQ’s vital environmental justice work made possible by your committed leadership to seize this historic opportunity and ensure no communities are left behind.
For more information, please contact Jake Thompson at jthompson@nrdc.org or Anahí Naranjo at naranjo@ceed.org
