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As states move to electrify their fleets, activists demand greater environmental justice focus
(Inside Climate News, 25 Jan 2022) Five states have joined California to make electric trucks, buses and tractors more available in the coming years, but advocates want more done to reduce pollution in vulnerable communities.
Melissa Miles has long thought the heavy traffic and abundant industry that surrounded her former neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey was to blame for her two young sons being diagnosed with asthma despite having no family history with the condition.
Three major interstate highways hug the borders of Ironbound, where Miles raised her two boys for nearly a decade. Then there’s the plastic factory that was about a mile and a half from her house, as well as the metal crushing plant just down the street. And that’s not to mention the interstate bus hub, the massive trash incinerator, the two fossil fuel power plants, the international airport and the regional shipping port that New Jersey shares with New York, which all sat within miles—if not yards—of her block.
In 2020, Miles moved to the more residential city of Summit, in part, to get away from all the pollution. But her time in Ironbound has spurred her to take on community organizing and fight what she calls an environmental injustice in cities like Newark.
Inside Climate News, 25 Jan 2022: As states move to electrify their fleets, activists demand greater environmental justice focus
