Date: March 6, 2025
To: Energy and Environment Committee
Re: House Bill 25-1277
Thank you for taking my comments.
I’m Shaina Oliver field organizer with Moms Clean Air Force-EcoMadres Colorado chapter. A national organization of 1.5 million moms, dads, and caregivers united in protecting our children from harmful air pollution and climate change, with 43,079 Colorado members. Moms Clean Air Force Colorado supports HB25-1277; Increasing Transparency Impact of Fuel Products.
Importantly, I’m a mom of four and we are the descendants of the genocide known as the “Indian Removal Act” known to the Dineh as “The Long Walk of the Navajo”. As a Tribal enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, I grew up hearing and seeing the impacts of exploitation on oil, gas, coal, uranium, helium, and many other minerals. Our water and lands were once a place of peace for my Indigenous relatives, but now we are facing health disparities and land degradation. Native Americans have higher health disparities linked to asthma, diabetes, heart disease, cancers, mental illness, adverse birth outcomes, and premature deaths than other counterpart groups.
And it’s showing that here in Colorado, our land, water, and air are being degraded to the point where we need legislation to protect our children’s health and our community’s right to address poor air quality, water quality, and land remediations. Currently, Denver-Aurora Front Range Communities ranks sixth for worst air quality for ozone-smog pollution according to the American Lung Association's “State of the Air Report,” which is detrimental to elders, maternal, and baby’s health. These pollutants also exacerbate respiratory illnesses like asthma. Over 500,000 Coloradoans like me and my youngest child are vulnerable to these harmful pollutants.
Parents of Colorado are counting on your leadership to protect our children’s health and environmental safety. By having free and informed information like we’ve done for tobacco products would further educate our communities of harmful air pollutants and their impact on public health and global heating. Moms Clean Air Force Colorado urges you to support HB25-1277 to increase the transparency of the impact of fuel products. Thank you.