environmental justice

Members of the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) held a final listening session Feb. 15 to present and get feedback on the draft of an environmental justice strategy that would govern how departments within the office approach their work.

As organizations across the state are looking to shift practices and models to become more climate-friendly, the MBTA is planning a shift to a fully electric bus fleet. The agency proposes a fully electrified fleet by 2040, but some transit activists and state legislators say the shift should come sooner and should have a stronger focus on the communities most impacted by air pollution.

District 1 City Councilor Lydia Edwards joined U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley last week in a press conference in Piers Park to promote clean energy jobs and environmental justice for the community of East Boston.

The disease of racism isn’t just a white policeman kneeling on a black man’s neck. It’s black and brown people breathing polluted air. It’s black folks in Boston spending 64 more hours stuck on the bus than white folks. It’s decades of housing policy that leave the average black family in Boston with $8 in wealth while the average white family has $247,500.