In the United States, federal policies exist to ensure environmental
justice and to protect Indigenous rights. However, the effectiveness of
these policies can be influenced by analytical tools chosen by
decision-makers to study disproportionate impacts of federal actions,
including environmental permitting, on Indigenous peoples in particular
and marginalized communities in general. Strong analytics can help
identify, early on, communities likely to be impacted by federal
permitting and decision-making, providing opportunities to consult
meaningfully with communities and address potential injustices or
inequities prior to key planning and permitting decisions. In contrast,
weak analytics can create blind spots to potential inequities and
injustices that may not be revealed until late in planning and
permitting processes if at all. Here we evaluate environmental justice
analytics used in federal decision-making with particular attention to
recent fossil fuel pipeline permitting. Using the Atlantic Coast
Pipeline - a proposed shale gas project in West Virginia, Virginia, and
North Carolina - as a case study, we identify methodological weaknesses
that contribute to decision-making blind spots surrounding environmental
justice, focusing especially on implications for American Indian tribes.
We discuss findings in the broader contexts of public policies
surrounding environmental justice and Indigenous rights. We offer
recommendations for policy-makers, regulators, pipeline developers, and
members of affected communities.