James held on to the lessons from those he met, and from an early age decided that his calling was the pursuit of social and economic justice. His activism further nurtured by the brothers at Xaverian High School, James went on to graduate from Harvard with honors where he was involved in numerous Democratic campaigns.
Climate change is an existential crisis. We must reach Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050 through a combination of green energy infrastructure investments and job development. At the same time, we must remember that communities of color and low income neighborhoods have been bearing the brunt of environmental degradation for a long time. I support creating an Office of Just Transition that will integrate social, racial, and environmental justice; incorporate the voices of labor; invest in green energy and job creation; and advance smart policy and enforcement of existing regulations.
The fossil fuel industry has put forward a false narrative that clean energy hurts jobs. With the right policies in place, it can actually be a boon to job creation and the economy, especially with our unique geography and landscape. If we make the right investments, the Commonwealth has multiple opportunities in clean energy and jobs related to geo-thermal, off-shore wind, and solar. Specifically we need to fund these two programs:
Jobs With Justice: A program to retrofit a million homes to make them more clean energy efficient and help workers with the transition to a clean energy economy.
Off-Shore Wind: Massachusetts has the largest technical potential for offshore wind development in the country, a wonderful opportunity for good paying jobs and enough estimated Gigawatts to electrify Massachusetts.