By: Shaina Oliver, Colorado Field Organizer
Date: October 1, 2026
About: Docket # EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0124-2920
To: EPA
My name is Shaina Oliver, Colorado Field Coordinator for Moms Clean Air Force and EcoMadres. We are a national community of over 1.6 million moms and caregivers united in the fight for clean air, and a healthy climate for our children. I speak today on behalf of our over 44,000 Colorado members who strongly oppose EPA’s proposal to roll back lifesaving limits on climate pollution limits for power plants. Greenhouse gases are heating the climate and endangering human health, and maintaining EPA’s authority to limit climate pollution from the power sector is vital to protecting our families and future generations.
Importantly, I am an Indigenous Peoples Rights Advocate, a wife and mother of four. I am a Tribal member of the Navajo Nation of Shiprock, New Mexico residing in Denver, CO with my husband and kids.
Colorado is the ancestral home of 48 Tribes; Moms Clean Air Force acknowledges the ancestral lands of 574 Tribal Nations of the United States. The Indigenous people of the Rocky Mountains have remained and have helped shaped the stewardship of long-termed uses of resources on our ancestral lands. Our grandparents endured abuses of this government and worked the jobs that shaped our communities as our reservations faced delays in community development and workers’ protections.
Greenhouse pollution from power plants and other sources is amplifying climate disasters, contributing to more intense wildfires and worsened air pollution in Colorado. Here in Denver, a gas-fired power plant operates in the heart of the city, surrounded by homes and families. The Denver-Greeley-Aurora region ranks eigth worst in the nation for ozone-pollution according to the American Lung Association’s 2026 state of air report. Ozone smog is especially harmful to children, pregnant women, elders and people with chronic conditions like asthma.
As a mother, I worry deeply about my youngest son’s asthma and how this EPA proposal, if finalized, would further endanger his health. It is unacceptable to continue putting polluters over our children. The Environmental Defense Fund estimates that stripping away limits on climate pollution from power plants would contribute to over 84,000 premature deaths.
Plus as a worker and mother, I grew to learn how my community and workers can be impacted by health adversaries and how that can impact your unborn child. I myself just like many in my community that have endure working and living near polluting industries have faced adverse birth outcomes, which can automatically disqualify you from serving in the military and can impact essential cognitive developments.
Research shows fossil fueled power plants are responsible for nearly one-quarter of the climate pollution in the U.S. Rolling back strong standards is a direct threat to public health and climate stability. Importantly, rollbacks show the world we are no longer leaders of knowledge, science, or technology development that shapes our communities to be resilient and resourceful. We are making the future for our next generations very challenging and very unappealing.
We at Moms strongly oppose EPA’s attempts to roll back life-saving climate pollution limits for power plants and erase the agency’s authority to set these vital limits in the future. Climate pollution protections for power plants are vital in protecting the health and future of our children, importantly reproductive health and the health of all babies.
Thank you.