By: Kindra Weid, Electric School Bus Outreach Coordinator
Date: June 3, 2026
About: Docket No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-3297
To: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
My name is Kindra Weid. I am providing these comments today on behalf of Moms Clean Air Force. I am a critical care registered nurse and air quality advocate living and working in SE Michigan.
I strongly oppose any efforts to weaken or delay tailpipe protections from light- and medium-duty vehicles. These protections were put in place based on overwhelming evidence linking tailpipe pollution to several negative health outcomes. Delaying or watering down these tailpipe pollution protections will be detrimental to public health.
While opponents of these regulations argue that the rules are infeasible or lead to excessive costs, market realities do not support these claims. Each of these standards can be met exclusively through improvements in internal combustion engine (ICE) technologies- many of which are already underway. Electrification technologies also provide a highly cost-effective compliance pathway, and they are becoming even more appealing as gas prices rise. Gas prices in my community recently reached $4.99/gallon, which is unusually high for us. The economics of ICE vehicles, and the associated health harms, increasingly do not make sense for our health or our pocketbooks. No one can afford unexpected, unplanned hospitalizations, and missed days from work or school.
As a nurse, I see the direct health impacts of exposure to tailpipe pollution on members of my own community and even within my own household. My family lives along a busy roadway, and we breathe in harmful tailpipe pollution every day. This impacts my partner’s asthma, causing inflammation, irritation, and triggers acute exacerbations. It causes headaches and nausea for me. I also witness these impacts on my community members in the local hospital where I work.
Many older adults have multiple chronic heart and lung conditions impacted by tailpipe pollution, such as coronary artery disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Long-term exposure to pollution from tailpipes contributes to these chronic conditions forming in the first place. In Washtenaw County alone, over 23,000 individuals cope with COPD and close to 28,000 with CVD. Both of these conditions are exacerbated by tailpipe pollution exposure and can lead to emergency room visits and hospitalizations.
Tailpipe pollution is toxic, and any measures to reduce or limit it should be maintained and strengthened, not delayed or weakened. Please maintain these air quality safeguards for the sake of the environment and human health, which is EPA’s mission to protect.