By: Celerah Hewes, National Field Manager, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: August 20, 2025
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0194
To: Environmental Protection Agency
My name is Celerah Hewes, and I am a National Field Manager for Moms Clean Air Force, living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Most importantly, I am a mother. In the Southwest, we experience climate change in our daily lives, from extreme heat to drought. I am here today to ask EPA NOT to rescind the Endangerment Finding or limits on climate pollution from tailpipes. These safeguards are foundational to EPA’s ability to protect us from the emissions that cause global warming—and the health of our families, communities, and future generations is what’s at stake. EPA must put people over polluters.
I grew up in New Mexico and as a mother, I often reflect on how different my child’s experience is due to the changing climate. Summers are hotter, winters bring less snow, and smoke from wildfires hundreds of miles away deposits ash on our front doorstep. All of this has gotten worse because of climate change. Albuquerque has consistently received an F for ozone pollution in the American Lung Association’s State of the Air Report. Extreme heat makes ozone much worse. Recently, we’ve received days of air quality alerts from the city that sensitive populations should limit their time outside. “Sensitive populations” includes ALL children because young people are especially vulnerable to air pollution and nearly all the health impacts of climate change.
For my daughter and for millions of other children, this means less time outside. Summer camps often have to move indoors due to extreme heat and poor air quality. I have picked my daughter up on numerous occasions due to heat stroke. She has missed days of school due to respiratory issues and severe allergies, that are made worse by the extended pollen seasons we are seeing due to climate warming. Climate change is costing families and communities a fortune as healthcare costs rise and lives, homes, jobs, and agricultural land are lost or damaged due to drought and extreme temperatures.
Meanwhile, it is clear that the protections in place now have done no damage to the fossil fuel industry, which is making record profits while our children, families, and communities pay the price. New Mexico is the second largest oil producing state, but we are doing our part. Our communities have fought hard to cut methane pollution and transition to cleaner forms of energy production. Revoking the Endangerment Finding would threaten those protections and impact growing industries.
On behalf of the over 1.6 million members of Moms Clean Air Force dedicated to protecting children’s health from air pollution and climate change, I urge you not to rescind the Endangerment Finding. Lowering climate pollution, as the Endangerment Finding requires, leads to cleaner air, better health, more jobs, and safer communities. Our children deserve nothing less.
Thank you.