Dr. Julie Cidell and PhD candidate José Acosta-Cordóva have recently been awarded a $990,000 grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency's Drivers and Environmental Impacts of Energy Transitions in Underserved Communities program.

Their project, in collaboration with Dr. Jane Lin and Dr. Serdap Erdal of the University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, is called Electrification, Emissions, Exposure, and Equity: Community-Driven Scenarios for Freight Vehicle Electrification. The goal of the 4E project is to develop an energy justice model for freight vehicle electrification in an urban environmental justice community that is responsive to community needs while advancing science in air quality, public health, socioeconomic, organizational, and institutional factors that play a multidisciplinary role in assessing the benefits and costs of transitioning into freight vehicle electrification.

The project will take three years to complete and is based out of the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago.