By: Vanessa Lynch, Pennsylvania Field Organizer
Date: June 3, 2026
About: Docket No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-3297
To: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Vanessa Lynch and I am the Pennsylvania Campaign Coordinator for Moms Clean Air Force. I am testifying in support of the strongest possible emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles or clean cars standards. These critical safeguards must not be weakened or delayed. With 7.8 million cars registered in Pennsylvania, the impact on the health of our families living near high traffic areas like cities, depots, and roadways is significant.
From Pittsburgh to Philadelphia to Lancaster – the American Lung Association reports these areas experience more than their fair share of particle pollution and ozone, in part, due to tailpipe pollution. Pollution from light- and medium-duty vehicles contributes to harmful soot and smog pollution that threatens the health of millions of people in the U.S. It’s no coincidence then that three of the top twenty worst places to live with asthma as identified in the Asthma and Allergy Foundation’s 2025 Asthma Capitols report, ere Allentown, Philadelphia, and Harrisburg.
In a 2022 study on Pittsburgh schoolchildren, 40% had exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5) greater than the then EPA standard. Overall the prevalence of asthma among Pittsburgh schoolchildren was 22.5% in the surveyed students. Since the report, Pittsburgh Public Schools has been working to utilize the Clean School Bus program to create a cleaner ride to school for its students, but needs EPA to continue to push forward strong clean car standards that are protective of student health.
Strong clean cars standards help reduce health-harming tailpipe air pollutants. Tailpipe exhaust from cars is a significant source of nitrogen oxides (NOx), which reacts in the atmosphere to form ground-level ozone (also referred to as smog). Ground-level ozone is harmful to breathe. PM2.5 is another tailpipe pollutant that is harmful to health. About one third of Pennsylvania’s air pollution problem comes from the millions of vehicles on the road and in numerous cities and towns across the state, the personal automobile is the single greatest polluter.
The cars covered by this rule will be on the road for decades, impacting air quality for generations. I am urging EPA not to weaken or delay emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles or clean cars standards to protect Pennsylvania’s children.