By: Shaina Oliver, Colorado Field Organizer
Date: June 3, 2026
About: Docket No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-3297
To: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Thank you for listening to my comments today. My name is Shaina Oliver. I’m a Field Coordinator for Moms Clean Air Force/EcoMadres in Colorado. We are more than one million parents, guardians, and caregivers fighting for clean air and a healthy climate across the U.S., with 44,336 members here in Colorado. Today, I am testifying on behalf of Colorado parents counting on the Clean Cars Standards in protecting crucial basic health protections for the most vulnerable frontline workers to community, importantly commonsense protections for our children and maternal health. Moms Clean Air Force is calling on EPA not to delay implementation of tailpipe protections for light-duty vehicles. These are basic, commonsense policies that protect communities, workers on the frontlines of our workforce, and children in school yards.
I am an Indigenous mother of four kids; we are a family of six. My children and I are descendants and survivors of the genocide known as the Indian Removal Act, known to the Diné as “The Long Walk of the Navajo.”
As Indigenous people, we know environmental harms are embedded in our laws, policies, and governance. As a Diné, my people have seen our wealth, lands, and health become degraded due to these environmental harms. Harms that not only impact my community but all communities across the United States.
The Denver metropolitan area, where my family lives, learns, and works, is ranked the eighth worst community to breathe due to unhealthy levels of ozone, or smog, pollution, according to the American Lung Association’s 2026 State of the Air Report.
As a community member living with asthma, I too am at risk of asthma attacks, stroke, and premature death. My youngest son, who is now 11 years old, was diagnosed with asthma last year. Indigenous, Black, and Brown communities are at higher risk of asthma, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, leukemia, respiratory disease, adverse birth outcomes, and premature deaths than our white counterparts. Not to mention that when Indigenous families like mine leave the reservation, we are redlined, segregated, or gentrified into areas with serious pollution problems. Because people of color are pushed to live near highways and industrial zoning areas that receive a hefty amount of traffic and particulate matter pollution, our communities, especially our children, face increased health risks.
Bottom line: parents in Colorado want strong protections against tailpipe pollution, and Moms Clean Air Force is calling on EPA not to delay implementing the 2024 Clean Cars standards. Thank you.