Issue Position: Environmental Justice

Issue Position

I WILL WORK TO PASS LAWS THAT ENFORCE OUR STATE'S ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE POLICIES

In 2001, Dr. Daniel Faber, Director of the Northeastern University Environmental Justice Research Collaborative, and his colleagues released a report that found that communities of color in Massachusetts bear over twenty times the environmental burden of predominantly white communities. This report prompted then Governor Paul Cellucci to introduce the state's first Environmental Justice Policy, but a second report released in 2005 found that the disparities were actually getting worse. In 2014, responding to the failure of policy to precipitate action, Governor Patrick Duval issued an Executive Order on Environmental Justice, which requires state agencies to dedicate efforts toward protecting communities most endangered by environmental hazards.

Even so,, a report by Clean Water Action dated October 25, 2017, states, "Unfortunately, despite a solid Executive Order on the books, progress on environmental justice has been almost invisible in Massachusetts." Bills S426 and H2913, which constitute the Massachusetts he Environmental Justice Act, continue to languish in committee.

I will work to get these bills out of committee and into law so that the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs is given a deadline for creating an actionable plan to carry out the state's Environmental Justice Policy. I will closely monitor their execution of that plan as well as the actions of other relevant agencies such as the Departments of Environmental Protection, Public Health, Public Utilities, and others, to ensure that they are in compliance. I will work to make sure that the state takes long overdue action to protect our most vulnerable communities from environmental hazards..

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