In September 2023, the ECOS Compliance Committee and Environmental Justice (EJ) Workgroup welcomed Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and Oklahoma’s Department of Environmental Quality (Oklahoma DEQ), as well as legal experts from Harvard Law School and New York University’s School of Law, to discuss Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) at the state level. The combined presentation slides can be viewed here, and the meeting recording is available below:
SEPs are projects that benefit the environment or public health and safety, funded through environmental enforcement actions. Their use is subject to requirements and restrictions at the state and federal levels, and policies vary significantly by state. CDPHE allows regulated entities facing enforcement action to offset penalties with a SEP, and maintains a library of SEP ideas from which entities can choose. Oklahoma DEQ has flexibility to utilize SEPs to fund projects in impacted communities that may not otherwise be feasible using available funding from other sources.
Thank you to Elizabeth Scherer of CDPHE, Scott Thompson of Oklahoma DEQ, Hannah Perls and Sommer Engels of Harvard Law School, and Bethany Davis Noll and Madeline Schwartz of NYU’s School of Law, for sharing their experiences and lessons learned with the ECOS Compliance Committee and EJ Workgroup.
