By: Laurie Anderson, Colorado field coordinator, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: April 12, 2022
About: Control of Air Pollution from New Motor Vehicles: Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle Standards Proposed Rule, Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2019-0055
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.
As a mom, 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 was recently downgraded to “severe” nonattainment. Here, we contend with NOx emissions from heavy vehicle traffic and VOC emissions from oil and gas development. This pollution combines in the presence of sunlight and resulted in 67 high ozone days—most days of last summer—in which the air was unhealthy to breathe, triggers asthma, and irritates our lungs. We must reduce both of these pollution sources to bring our area into ozone attainment—including heavy duty vehicles which are major contributors to this air pollution.
The past couple of weeks I have received multiple, urgent Red Flag Warning alerts for my area stating 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 here very seriously based on recent extreme fire events.
I live near the devastating December Marshall wildfire which destroyed more than 1000 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. Then, just last month, the NCAR fire in Boulder Canyon, not far from the destruction of the Marshall fire, forced tens of thousands to evacuate.
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 the EPA to enact the strongest possible Heavy Duty Truck Standards 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.
EPA’s proposal is a step in the right direction, but the proposal must be strengthened, to better protect children, people with asthma, older adults, and other vulnerable groups from the health harms of air pollution. 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.
Thank you for this opportunity to testify.