By: Laurie Anderson, Colorado State Coordinator, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: May 2, 2023
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2022-0985
To: Environmental Protection Agency
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Laurie Anderson, and I am a Colorado field organizer with Moms Clean Air Force. I am from Broomfield, Colorado.
On behalf of Moms Clean Air Force, I am testifying in support of the proposed standards, and call on EPA to finalize strong clean truck standards this year. Stronger transportation standards are crucial in protecting the health of our children and communities, and it is urgent that we act now.
As a mom of five, I am concerned that our future generations, including our own children, will be significantly more impacted by climate change-fueled extreme weather events in their lifetimes than we are today.
I live in the Denver Metro/North Front Range ozone nonattainment zone, which has been downgraded to “severe” nonattainment. Here, we contend with NOx emissions from heavy vehicle traffic, along with VOC emissions from oil and gas development, which results in many high ozone days all summer long—days in which our air is unhealthy to breathe. Therefore, we must reduce both of these pollution sources to bring our area into ozone attainment. We know that transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas pollution, and that within this sector heavy-duty trucks are the second largest contributor.
Greenhouse gas emissions are driving climate change, and we need to reduce this climate pollution from vehicles in order to have a stable climate and protect our families’ health. Red Flag Warning alerts are now all too common for my area. These warnings indicate that critical fire weather conditions exist in which a combination of strong winds, low relative humidity, and warm temperatures exist which can contribute to extreme fire behavior. We take these warnings very seriously based on extreme fire events here.
I live near the devastating December Marshall wildfire, which destroyed more than 1,000 homes and has become a sobering example of how climate change is impacting our communities and fueling more frequent and more intense wildfires including destructive, fast-moving outbreaks, even in the dead of winter.
2020 was the second-hottest year on record and the future will likely be even hotter. Across the nation, we are also seeing increasingly powerful hurricanes, more destructive droughts, and severe flooding. We know far too well that addressing the climate crisis can’t wait.
Therefore, we need EPA to adopt the strongest possible greenhouse gas rules for heavy-duty trucks to help meet this critical climate moment and protect communities that are already living with extreme and dangerous weather conditions. The transportation sector is currently the leading domestic source of the carbon pollution that is driving climate change and the trucks manufactured under this rule will be on the road for decades, so these trucks and buses must be cleaned up as soon as possible.
Moms and dads across the country want to see a rapid transition to zero-emitting trucks, and we need cleaner air for our children and our communities. Everyone has the right to breathe clean air.
Please protect our health and our future by finalizing the strongest standards, consistent with the Advanced Clean Trucks rule, as soon as possible. Thank you for this opportunity to testify.