Energy Justice Mapping Tool - Disadvantaged Communities Reporter

This tool is intended to allow users to explore and produce reports on census tracts that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has categorized as disadvantaged communities, or DACs, pursuant to Executive Order (EO) 14008 - Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.

Section 223 of E.O. 140008 created the Justice40 Initiative, which established a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities (DACs).

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB)'s Interim Guidance defines a community as either:

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

Brief Description of DACs Methodology

DOE's working definition of disadvantage is based on cumulative burden. There are thirty-six (36) burden indicators that reflect fossil dependence, energy burden, environmental and climate hazards, and socio-economic vulnerabilities. Further information on the indicators and data sources and can be found here.

The characterization of DACs was created using data at the census tract level. There are 73,056 census tracts in the U.S., excluding U.S. territories.

To identify the census tracts that could be categorized as a DAC, we processed data in four main steps:

1. For each census tract, we calculated the percentile values for each of the 36 burden indicators.
2. We summed the percentiles across the indicators to create a score for each tract. Each indicator received equal weight. The final scores for each census tract could range from 0 to 36, where 36 would represent the greatest disadvantage.
3. Based on the score, we selected the top 20 percent of census tracts in each state. This ensured that every state was represented.
4. To ensure wealthier locations were not inadvertently included, DAC eligibility was further restricted based on income. A census tract selected in step 3 was categorized 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 as defined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

In sum: To be considered a DAC, a census tract must rank in the 80th percentile of the cumulative sum of the 36 burden indicators and have at least 30% of households classified as low-income.

Additionally, federally recognized tribal lands and U.S. territories, in their entirety, are categorized as DACs in accordance with OMB's Interim Guidance “common conditions” definition of community.

Brief Overview of the Tool

The tool shows census tracts categorized as DACs in blue and federally recognized tribal lands and U.S. territories in green. The left panel enables a location search by either common geographies (zip, city county), tract number (GEOID), tribal name, or territory name. The left display shows the top 10 burden indicators for the selected census tract and the report shows values for all 36 burden indicators for the selected census tract. Additional information for federally recognized tribal lands and U.S. territories is forthcoming.