By: Elizabeth Hauptman, Michigan Field Organizer
Date: October 1, 2026
About: Docket # EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0124-2920
To: EPA
Hello, my name is Elizabeth Hauptman. I live in Livingston County, Michigan, and I’m a field manager with Moms Clean Air Force.
But today, I’m speaking to you first and foremost as a mom.
My son has asthma. And this summer, Michigan once again found itself under a blanket of wildfire smoke.
In July, the air quality across our state became hazardous. Here in Michigan, we saw air quality readings that were off the charts. Families were told to stay indoors, limit outdoor activity, and protect themselves from the smoke.
And for families like mine, wildfire smoke isn't just something we see on a weather app.
We feel it.
I know what it is like to watch my son struggle to breathe when the air around him becomes dangerous. A few years ago, when wildfire smoke from Canada blanketed Michigan, we had to take him to urgent care.
I can still see his face. His eyes were teary and panicked, and he was fighting for air.
There are moments as a parent when everything else falls away. You’re not thinking about politics. You’re not thinking about policy. You’re just thinking, Please let my child breathe.
No parent should have to wonder whether the air outside is safe for their child.
And yet, this is the reality our children are growing up in.
We are seeing hotter temperatures, more dangerous wildfire smoke, more extreme storms, and more disruption to our everyday lives. Climate change is also making air pollution worse, increasing the risks of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, particularly for children. Every fraction of a degree of climate warming will make these impacts worse for our children and future generations.
That is why I am deeply concerned that EPA is moving backward.
Fossil fuel power plants are responsible for roughly a quarter of the climate pollution generated in the United States. They also emit other pollutants that harm our health, including soot, sulfur dioxide, and smog-forming pollution.
The Carbon Rule was a safeguard. It was a promise that power plants would be held accountable for the pollution they put into our air and our atmosphere.
Now EPA has repealed those protections and is proposing to go even further by eliminating the federal government’s ability to limit climate pollution from power plants altogether.
I know these rules can sound abstract when we talk about them in Washington.
But they are not abstract to families like mine in Michigan.
They are about whether a child with asthma can safely play soccer outside.
They are about whether parents have to check the air quality before sending their kids outdoors.
They are about whether the next wildfire smoke event, heat wave, or extreme storm is going to be even more dangerous.
And they are about the world our children will inherit from us.
As a mother, I cannot look at my son and say, We knew what was happening, but we decided not to act.
We have the ability to choose cleaner energy. We have the ability to reduce pollution. And we have the ability to give our children something better than a future where hazardous air becomes normal.
So I am asking EPA to stop moving backward.
Protect the Clean Air Act. Protect strong limits on pollution from power plants. And most importantly, do not abdicate your responsibility to protect our children.
Because every child deserves something as basic as being able to breathe safely.
Thank you.