• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Moms Clean Air Force

Fighting for Our Kids' Health

  • Take Action
    • Right Now
      • Sign a Petition
      • Register to Vote
      • Volunteer for Clean Air
      • Clean Air Action Guide
    • Attend an Event
      • Event Calendar
      • Forum on Maternal & Child Health in a Dangerous Climate
    • En Español
      • EcoMadres
    • Support Moms
      • Donate
  • What We Work On
    • Moms Priorities
      • EPA Work
      • Legislation We Support
      • Justice in Every Breath
      • Moms & Mayors
      • EcoMadres
    • Air Pollution
      • Cars and Trucks
      • Electric School Buses
      • Maternal Health
      • Mercury
      • Ozone Pollution
      • Soot Pollution
    • Climate Change
      • Carbon Pollution
      • Clean Energy
      • Extreme Weather
      • Mental Health
      • Methane
    • Plastics and Petrochemicals
      • “Advanced Recycling”
      • Petrochemical Pollution
      • Waste Incineration
    • Toxic Chemicals
      • Chemical Safety
      • Schools and Playgrounds
      • Vinyl Chloride
  • Where We Work
    • State Chapters
      • Arizona
      • California
      • Colorado
      • Florida
      • Georgia
      • Illinois
      • Iowa
      • Louisiana
      • Maryland
      • Michigan
      • Montana
      • Nevada
      • New Hampshire
      • New Jersey
      • New Mexico
      • New York
      • North Carolina
      • Ohio
      • Pennsylvania
      • Tennessee
      • Texas
      • Virginia
      • Washington
      • Washington, DC
      • West Virginia
      • Wisconsin
  • Who We Are
    • Mission

      We are a community of over 1.5 million parents united against air and climate pollution to protect our children’s health.

      • Learn More
    • Our Team
      • National Team
      • Field Organizers
      • Job Openings
    • Learn More
      • Our Mission
      • Legislation We Support
      • Notable Achievements
      • 2024 Annual Report
    • Programs
      • EcoMadres
      • Community Health Justice
      • Indigenous Communities
    • Get in Touch
      • Contact Us
      • Media Inquiries
  • Articles
    • All Articles
      • Topics
        • Plastics and Petrochemicals
        • Mom Detective
        • Air Pollution
        • Climate Change
        • Toxic Chemicals
    • American Lung Association’s Yearly Report Ends With an Unprecedented Plea: Save EPA
      How Climate and Air Pollution Are Silently Endangering Moms and Babies: Takeaways From the Maternal and Child Health Forum
      Science Matters: Dr. Phil Landrigan, Pediatrician and Public Health Physician
      The Green Gender Gap: What’s Love Got to Do With It? (VIDEO)
  • Resources
  • Press
    • Media Contact

      For all urgent press inquiries, please contact DKC News

      • MomsCleanAirForce@dkcnews.com
    • Moms in the Media
      • Press Releases
      • News Stories
      • Moms Make News Archives
  • Donate

FacebookTwitterinstagram

  • Take Action
  • Join the Force
  • Donate
Resource Library / Air Pollution / Cars and Trucks

Testimony: Molly Rauch, 2021, EPA Reconsideration of SAFE 1 Hearing

Testimony

email Email Linkfacebook Share on Facebooktwitter Share on X

By: Molly Rauch, Public Health Policy Director, Moms Clean Air Force

Date: June 2, 2021

About: Environmental Protection Agency Reconsideration of SAFE 1 Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0257

To: Environmental Protection Agency

Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Molly Rauch, and I am the public health policy director for Moms Clean Air Force. I live in Washington DC with my three children. I am speaking on behalf of more than one million moms, dads, grandmas, and aunties who are members of Moms Clean Air Force and fighting to protect our children from air pollution and climate change. We strongly support EPA’s proposal to restore state authority to protect families from pollution, and we urge you to move swiftly toward setting strong federal clean car standards.

In April, DC once again received an F for ground-level ozone pollution from the American Lung Association, in their annual State of the Air report. As someone who has been prescribed an asthma inhaler for my own breathing problems, I know firsthand that high ozone days can make it hard to breathe. This is especially true for the 12% of DC children—15,000—who have asthma. Ozone is not only an asthma trigger, but it also interferes with normal lung development and makes lungs more vulnerable to infection.

Heat makes ozone pollution worse. As the weather warms up this season, I can see this relationship between ozone and heat in the air quality warnings that I regularly check. Last month, we already had three code orange air days in DC due to high ozone levels. A new study published this week in Nature Climate Change estimated that more than one-third of heat deaths worldwide are due to climate change already. Much more warming is predicted if we do not dramatically reduce climate pollution. Catastrophic results will follow. Scientists have predicted that in 2080, DC will feel like Dallas. There will be more smog as a result of this heat, more heat-related illness and death, more pollution-related asthma attacks, declines in educational achievement, increases in violence, more premature births, and so on.

The transportation sector is the nation’s leading source of climate-warming carbon pollution. If we want to protect our children from ozone pollution and from climate change, we simply must cut pollution from cars, trucks, and buses as quickly as possible.

Restoring state authority to limit pollution from dirty vehicles would help address inequitable transportation-related health impacts. States must be permitted to rein in pollution from dirty vehicles and set stronger standards in order to protect their most vulnerable.

Today is the first climate-related public hearing at the EPA since President Biden took office, and I am encouraged to hear the widespread support for EPA’s SAFE1 proposal from every part of the country. This shows that there's a tidal wave of public support for addressing the climate crisis that is threatening our children's health and future, and that we're going to step up and speak out for climate action, every chance we get.

I urge you to finalize restoration of state authority and then, please, move swiftly toward setting strong federal clean car rules to ensure we can achieve our climate goals.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Take Action on this Issue

Join the force and stay updated on opportunities to take action:

Donate

Footer

Moms Clean Air Force

We are a community of 1.5 million moms and dads united against air pollution – including the urgent crisis of our changing climate – to protect our children’s health.

Areas of Focus

  • Air Pollution
  • Climate Change
  • Toxic Chemicals

FacebookTwitterinstagram

© 2025 Moms Clean Air Force
All rights reserved

Privacy Policy