By: Shaina Oliver, Colorado State Coordinator, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: June 13, 2023
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0072
To: Environmental Protection Agency
Thank you for taking public comments. I’m Shaina Oliver, Field Coordinator for Moms Clean Air Force/EcoMadres Colorado Chapter. We’re over 1.5 million moms, dads, and caregivers united in fighting for our children’s right to clean air and a healthy climate. Importantly, I am an Indigenous people’s rights advocate, wife, and mother of four children. Today, I am speaking in support of the carbon rule and calling on EPA to finalize the strongest possible standards that help protect our families from the harmful air pollution that contributes to climate change and impacts our health.
I am a Tribal member of the Navajo Nation. I am from Shiprock, New Mexico, and currently reside in Denver, Colorado, with my family. My children and I are descendants of the genocide called the Indian Removal Act, known to the Diné as “The Long Walk of the Navajo.” Colorado is the ancestral home of 48 Tribes, including my tribe, but I want to acknowledge that I currently reside on the lands of the Arapaho and Cheyenne Nations. The Indigenous people of the Rocky Mountains have seen an increase in poverty and harmful development on our ancestral lands because of unjust laws, policies, rules, and regulations.
Where I grew up on the Navajo Reservation, we could see coal-fired power plants from the roads on our way home. I grew up seeing my grandmother make breakfast for my grandfather before he headed to the coal power plant to work. Many times, he was taken to the ER for his asthma attacks, which were triggered by his job. He was eventually forced to retire because of his frequent asthma attacks. Power plant pollution impacts the health of workers and community members, and these impacts are worst in communities like mine—Indigenous, Black, and Brown communities. My grandfather no longer has to suffer from his asthma as he died five years ago. His cause of death was ruled unknown. He was also one of the Navajo uranium miners who were not provided safety equipment during the 1960s.
My grandmother first took me to the ER for breathing concerns in Phoenix, Arizona, when I was a baby. When I was about nine, I was again taken to the ER for breathing concerns here in Denver, Colorado, and I learned that I had asthma. I often missed school and had to stay indoors, and my mom missed work. To this day, I struggle to breathe. Poor air quality in Colorado exacerbates these problems. In Denver, we have a gas power plant in the heart of the metro area surrounded by our communities. Colorado has faced terrible air quality due not only to local toxic pollutants, local car exhaust, and wildfire smoke from fires made worse by climate change, but also from power plant pollution in Colorado and neighboring states.
Moms Clean Air Force knows fossil-fueled power plants are responsible for almost one-quarter of the climate pollution generated by the US. EPA must strengthen community input and safeguards in the final version of this rule and ensure community and Tribal member inclusion. This rule must address climate pollution and ensure we sustain a livable planet for future generations beyond us.