A bus company that left its buses’ engines running while parked in Boston neighborhoods has settled a lawsuit by agreeing to pay US$5.6 million in damages for the resulting air pollution.
The settlement came in a citizen-enforcement lawsuit under the Clean Air Act, which allows any person to sue alleged polluters for the harm done to human health and the environment. The case was based on a Massachusetts law that limits vehicle idling to no more than five minutes.
Like nearly all cities around the world, Boston has trouble keeping its air clean and safe, in part due to vehicle emissions. Those emissions contributed to nearly 42,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2024, or more than four people every hour…