By: Lux Ho, Georgia State Coordinator, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: May 3, 2023
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2022-0985
To: Environmental Protection Agency
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Lux Ho, and I am the Georgia Field Coordinator for Moms Clean Air Force. I am speaking today in support of the EPA’s proposal for more stringent standards around greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty vehicles that would begin in model year 2027. The United States has set a goal of carbon neutrality by the year 2050. We are at a point where this is no longer something to strive for, it’s completely necessary if we want to ensure that future generations of our children can exist safely on this planet.
My intent on testifying today is to voice my concern about the state of climate crisis that we are living in. Ever since I was a child, I could remember hearing environmentalists and activists pleading for us to heed the concerns around greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. I grew up a little south of Atlanta in an enclave where working class Black and brown families, and Southeast Asian and Latine immigrants live and work. I saw the effects of rising temperatures and air pollution affect the health of the adults and community members around me. As an adult living in Fulton County today breathing in polluted air and feeling the burgeoning climate crisis, I am deeply saddened at the bleakness of our situations and alarmed by the urgency with which we need to act. Every day I look at the faces of the children in my life and worry about the kind of world that they will grow up in, if they’ll have to suffer the consequences of our climate inactions and those of the generations before us.
This EPA proposal would be an important step in us reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. It is so important for us to move towards slowing down and reversing the warming of the planet for the sake of our children and their health. The most vulnerable in our communities stand to be the most impacted by the climate crisis. Air pollution is worsened by the rising temperatures and extreme weather events, and this climate instability disproportionately impacts children, pregnant people, the elderly, and immunocompromised people. This is especially disastrous as we are in the midst of a pandemic that further compromise the respiratory health and immune systems of our citizens.
Once again, I support the strongest possible greenhouse gas emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles, consistent with the Advanced Clean Trucks rules. Carbon emissions affect all of us—being vigilant about approaching net-zero emissions is critical in meaningfully addressing the climate crisis.
Thank you for your time.