By: Liz Hurtado, Senior Manager for Field Engagement
Date: June 3, 2026
About: Docket No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-3297
To: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Good morning, my name is Liz Hurtado. I’m a mother of four living in Simsbury, Connecticut, and I serve as Senior Manager for Field Engagement at Moms Clean Air Force, where I lead our Latino engagement initiative, EcoMadres.
I’m here today to urge EPA to reject this proposal and fully implement the 2024 Clean Cars Standards.
As a mother, nothing matters more to me than my children’s health. I want them to be able to play outside, walk to school, and grow up breathing clean air without worrying whether the pollution around them could trigger an asthma attack or harm their health.
The need for these protections is clear. According to the American Lung Association’s 2026 State of the Air report, more than 156 million people in the United States live in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution. These pollutants are linked to asthma attacks, heart and lung disease, emergency room visits, missed school days, and premature death.
The report also found that Hispanic individuals are more than three times as likely, and people of color overall are more than twice as likely as white individuals to live in communities that receive failing grades for all major measures of air pollution.
Here in Connecticut, Black children visit the emergency room for asthma at more than six times the rate of white children, while Hispanic children are more than three times as likely to be hospitalized for asthma. Black residents are nearly three times more likely to die from asthma than white residents, and Hispanic residents are more than twice as likely to die from it.
In Hartford County, where I live and raise my family, nearly 15,000 children are living with asthma. Those numbers represent real children – kids trying to learn in school, play sports, spend time outdoors, and simply enjoy being kids while carrying the burden of a disease that dirty air can make worse.
The 2026 State of the Air report also found that air quality is moving in the wrong direction. In Connecticut, more counties experienced increases in unhealthy ozone days than those that saw improvement or no change. At a time when families are already facing worsening air quality, delaying proven protections against vehicle pollution would only make the problem worse.
EPA’s responsibility is to protect public health. The Clean Cars standards help fulfill that mission by reducing dangerous soot and smog-forming pollution from one of the nation’s largest sources of emissions.
As a mother of four, I am asking EPA to put children’s health first. Delaying these protections only prolongs exposure to pollution that harms our families. I urge EPA to maintain and fully implement the 2024 Clean Cars Standards without delay. Every child deserves a chance to grow up breathing cleaner air, regardless of their zip code, race, or family income.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.