Boston, MA-- As thousands of Bay Staters gathered on Boston’s City Hall Plaza for Greenfest 2009, Environment Massachusetts, a citizen based environmental advocacy organization joined with Mayor Menino to celebrate Boston’s commitment to the environment and call on state leaders to take bold action to Repower the state with clean, renewable energy.
"Under the leadership of Mayor Menino, Boston has become one of the greenest cities in the country and helped push the state towards a greener future," said Margie Alt, the Boston-based Executive Director of Environment America, a national 
federation of state based, citizen funded environmental advocacy organizations including Environment Massachusetts. "Thanks to the leadership of Governor Patrick and Mayors like Tom Menino, we’ve taken the first steps towards repowering our state with clean energy and putting thousands of Bay Staters to work building wind turbines, installing solar panels and weatherizing homes, but we’ve got a lot more work ahead of us."
Mayor Menino, in introducing the event called on citizens to take part in efforts to make Boston an environmental leader. "The city is proud to serve as host for this event," said Mayor Menino. "We hope residents will take advantage of the myriad of workshops, exhibits, and demonstrations to learn what steps they can take to go green. From single-stream recycling to Renew Boston’s home energy efficiency, the information that can be gained from GreenFest is another step forward as Boston goes from Beantown to Greentown."
Ms. Alt concluded by calling on Massachusetts’ Congressional delegation to repower America with clean energy. "Our Congressional leaders need to stay firm and convince their colleagues in the Senate to pass a strong renewable energy standard and cap on global warming pollution. Beantown is truly becoming Greentown. Our nation needs to follow in the footsteps of the City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," concluded Alt.
