Moms Condemn EPA’s Total Betrayal of its Mission and Disregard for Human Health
Contact: DKC News, [email protected]
Washington, DC (February 12, 2026) — EPA announced today its decision to roll back the Endangerment Finding and clean vehicle standards. This attempt to undermine EPA’s ability to protect families from climate pollution puts Black and Latino communities at heightened risk, as both are disproportionately impacted by the changing climate.
In response, Moms Clean Air Force’s Senior Manager Liz Hurtado (who also leads EcoMadres) and National Manager for Health Equity Almeta Cooper (who also leads Community Health Justice) released the following statements.
Statement from Liz Hurtado:
“Latino families are already paying the price of climate pollution with our health, our jobs, and our homes. As mothers, we see it when extreme heat keeps our children indoors, when wildfire smoke makes it hard to breathe, and when floods and storms destroy neighborhoods and lives. These threats grow even greater with the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to roll back the Endangerment Finding, which is central to the EPA’s ability to limit climate pollution from cars, power plants, and more. It reflects what science and frontline communities have long known: climate pollution puts lives at risk.
“Latinos are disproportionately represented in the outdoor workforce, putting workers at higher risk of heat-related illness. Many of our families also live in urban heat islands, where rising temperatures can quickly make it unsafe for our children to play outdoors or even feel comfortable in our own homes.
“This decision makes clear who is being left without protection. Instead of strengthening safeguards that families rely on, the EPA is stepping away from its responsibility to keep our communities and our children safe.”
Statement from Almeta Cooper:
“EPA’s decision to roll back the Endangerment Finding is a significant and startling betrayal of the American people. Abandoning the foundation of EPA’s ability to protect families from climate pollution has sweeping consequences that harm everyone. But our precious children and grandchildren, pregnant women, older adults, and those living in under-resourced communities will bear the most severe burden of these threats.
“Studies show that Black and Brown families are among those who suffer the most from the impacts of climate change due to institutional racism and longstanding inequities that have determined where members of these communities are more likely to live, work, and play. Black people are 52% more likely than white people to live on urban heat islands, in large part thanks to the legacy of redlining.
“We are also less likely to have easy access to the healthcare we need in order to safely manage health conditions like asthma, which are exacerbated by extreme heat days or dangerous levels of air pollution. The numbers reflect this disparity: Black children are more than seven times more likely to die from asthma than white children.
“When I hold my beloved five-month-old Black grandson, I’m overwhelmed with grief for the world he is growing up in–grief for the mess that our leaders are leaving behind for his generation. The EPA has been failing us for a year now, sacrificing our children’s health at every turn, and in doing so, corrupting its very mission to protect us.”