Dominique Browning co-founded the organization in 2011 with the intention of turning the climate conversation from “polar bears to people.”
CONTACT: DKC News, [email protected]
New York, New York — Moms Clean Air Force celebrates its 15th anniversary today as the largest and oldest group organizing parents to fight climate change and air pollution.
Dominique Browning, who co-founded Moms Clean Air Force after decades in the magazine world, says that she started Moms in 2011 with the goal of turning the conversation about climate change from “polar bears to people.” Since its inception, Moms’ work has expanded to include air pollution, toxic chemicals, and “Justice in Every Breath.”
“When I started Moms, global warming felt like a far-away problem,” says Dominique Browning, director & co-founder of Moms Clean Air Force. “It was a danger to polar bears in the Arctic, not to our kids. Over the last 15 years, Moms has worked tirelessly to change that narrative—and to advocate for protections and laws that fight against climate and air pollution. The impacts of climate change aren’t a distant threat – they are happening now, and they are deeply personal. Unprecedented flooding is devastating communities; the cost of cooling during a heatwave is forcing families to make hard financial choices; wildfires can change life as we know it in an instant. Our children, who will inherit this planet and are growing up in this age of climate chaos, have the most at stake. But there is still so much hope for our future if we course correct now, and that’s what keeps me, and this organization, going. Hope, and love: the most sustainable, renewable energy that humans have. Love for our children, our grandchildren, our planet—and yes, the polar bears too.”
To celebrate their 15th anniversary, Moms Clean Air Force released a list of 15 wins over the past 15 years:
- Moms Clean Air Force was launched in 2011. The first challenge we took on was to attain national EPA standards to protect babies from coal-fired power plant pollution that included air toxics such as mercury. Coal plant pollution settles into our soil and water bodies where it converts to a powerful neurotoxin that disrupts the development of fetal and infant brains. Thanks in part to our tireless efforts, mercury pollution dropped by 86% since the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards were implemented in 2012. Trump’s EPA has now put these gains at risk, and Moms are poised to do what they do best: protect their kids.
- Moms Clean Air Force held the first annual Play-In for Climate Action in 2014, when over 200 parents and children traveled to Washington, DC to tell Congress to tackle the challenge of our changing climate by crafting laws to cut carbon and mercury pollution. Members of Congress, including Senators Whitehouse and Boxer, joined the inaugural gathering. Inspired by the concept of a “sit-in,” Moms Clean Air Force coined the term “play-in” because kids don’t sit—they play!
- The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in 2016. This law was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and is designed to help protect our children from exposure to toxic chemicals in our products. Moms Clean Air Force was deeply involved at the grassroots level for support of this bill, and Moms Director & Co-Founder Dominique Browning was invited to the signing of the bill into law.
- Moms Clean Air Force hit its 1 million members milestone in 2017. Today, they are closing in on 2 million, with chapters across the country. Celebrity members of Moms Clean Air Force Christina Applegate, Julianne Moore, and Maya Rudolph have also taken to YouTube and other social media to speak about the importance of fighting for strong protections against climate and air pollution and toxic chemicals.
- In 2018, Moms Clean Air Force launched its Latino engagement program, EcoMadres. Since then, EcoMadres has grown into a vibrant community of parents and caregivers mobilizing to educate and activate around the disproportionate toll that air pollution and climate impacts take on Latino communities. The program recently won a Telly Award, and EcoMadres leadership has been recognized by Sachamama and People en Español! In 2022, EcoMadres even launched its EcoMusica group, SonTeirra, to inspire hope and action with the power of music.
- The popular Mom Detective column —inspired by all the shocking things we learned about the prevalence of toxic chemicals in our everyday stuff–launched in 2019, with an exposee on dental floss. Seven years later, the Mom Detective franchise has helped people navigate everything from bathroom renovations, to heat safety, to wrapping paper, and current Mom Detective Alexandra Zissu has been featured in SheKnows and NBC’s Modern Parenting segment.
- In 2021, Moms Clean Air Force helped secure passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—the largest investment in rebuilding America’s infrastructure in more than 70 years. Through more than 200 meetings with lawmakers and federal officials, public events, op-eds, and grassroots advocacy, Moms helped secure historic investments to protect children’s health from air pollution and our changing climate—including $5 billion for clean school buses and $4.7 billion to plug orphaned oil and gas wells.
- The Inflation Reduction Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden in August 2022. This once-in-a-generation legislation includes an unprecedented $369 billion investment in cutting climate pollution. Moms Clean Air Force members spent 18 months advocating for several important climate provisions in this bill, holding more than 300 meetings with congressional offices and sending more than 80,000 emails to lawmakers. Moms continue to defend its investments as they are rolled back under Trump.
- In 2024, Moms debuted their first annual summit on children’s health, which included Chelsea Clinton and EPA Administrator Michael Regan among the esteemed guests. Since then, Moms has convened multiple high-profile events centered on children’s health, including three annual Moms convenings, two EcoMadres summits, and a forum on maternal and child health.
- Moms worked tirelessly to ensure that school districts nationwide replace dirty diesel-powered transportation fleets with electric school bus fleets. EPA’s Clean School Bus Program distributed nearly $3 billion and 12,000 school buses between 2022 and 2024 to clean up the nation’s school bus fleet and install the necessary charging infrastructure. Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged Moms’ electric school bus advocacy in a letter that was read at the 2024 Play-In for Climate Action.
- In 2023 and 2024, Moms and our Latino engagement program, EcoMadres, worked behind-the-scenes with the offices Representative Jennifer McClellan (VA-4) and Representative Nanette Diaz Barragán (CA-44) on two important congressional resolutions to protect the health of moms, babies, and children in a changing climate: the Resolution on Children and Extreme Weather, introduced by Representative McClellan at Moms’ 2024 Play-In for Climate Action, and the Protecting Latina Maternal and Infant Health From Extreme Heat and Air Pollution Resolution, introduced by Representative Barragán at a press conference with EcoMadres.
- Moms Clean Air Force fought hard for years for New Mexico’s oil and gas methane pollution protections, giving testimony, writing comments and op-eds, meeting with decision makers. In 2025, methane pollution data collected by satellite shows oil and gas operators on the New Mexico side of the Permian Basin are releasing methane at half the rate of operators next door in Texas, proving that these protections are working! Moms joined Governor Lujan Grishman in Albuquerque to celebrate.
- In March of 2025, Moms Clean Air Force celebrated with Governor Shapiro when the state of Pennsylvania plugged its 300th orphaned and abandoned oil and gas well, protecting communities from the dangerous pollution that leaks out of them. Moms, who have been urging leaders for years to address orphan well pollution, are teaming up with Environmental Defense Fund to identify them for plugging, and celebrated the 400th well milestone in June 2026!
- Moms Clean Air Force closed out 2025 by launching the “Zeldin Must Go” campaign, citing EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s corruption of the agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment. Moms convened a coalition of nearly 190 organizations to demand Congressional oversight to ensure that EPA fulfills its core mission. Members of this coalition included the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, Hip Hop Caucus, League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, and other leading groups.
- In May of this year, Moms Clean Air Force’s advocacy helped suspend operations at the Freepoint Ecosystems “advanced recycling” facility in Hebron, Ohio. Advanced Recycling is just greenwashing for incinerating plastics, and it is a toxic process. Moms’ field organizer in Ohio, Amanda Rowoldt, first alerted the Ohio EPA to major pollution from this facility when she filmed toxic black smoke coming from its stacks about a year and a half ago. And this is just one advanced recycling win Moms are celebrating: A proposed facility in Point Township, Pennsylvania, was canceled, and another in Youngstown, Ohio, thanks in large part to Moms’ advocacy on the ground.
BONUS: Moms Director & Co-Founder Dominique Browning was named to the Time100 Climate List alongside Pope Leo, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and King Charles for her work to protect children from air pollution and climate change.