Michigan

Moms are working in Michigan to fight for clean air and a stable climate. We host events, share information about what’s going on, and create opportunities for mothers to talk to their legislators about their concerns. Please join us in Michigan, and let us know about your priorities.

29,273

members in Michigan

How we’re making a difference in Michigan

Michigan Moms Respond to Covid-19

As we cope with the Covid-19 response in Michigan, Moms Clean Air Force is cancelling our in-person April events. Keeping our families safe is our top priority.

Hope will not be cancelled. We are stronger together, and a better future for our children keeps us motivated. All staff are working from home. We are meeting with each other and our lawmakers virtually, and we are exploring ways to best support Michigan communities, especially those for which Covid-19 is an extreme hardship. Read how Michigan moms and families are coping with Covid-19 here.

But as the science shows that breathing polluted air can worsen the impacts of Covid-19, the EPA continues to push forward dangerous proposals that weaken lifesaving pollution regulations. For the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we are asking that everyone take this Earth Day action from home: Join Moms Clean Air Force in demanding that EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler must go so that EPA can do its job and protect the health of our children and communities.

Moms Clean Air Force Michigan joins Rep. Slotkin’s Environmental Advisory Board

Michigan field organizer Elizabeth Hauptman is representing Moms Clean Air Force on Representative Elissa Slotkin’s Environmental Advisory Board, which advises the congresswoman on crafting strong environmental and energy policy. In this capacity, Elizabeth is working to ensure our children’s and our communities’ health will remain top priorities for the congresswoman.

Michigan Moms with Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin at an in-district event, July 2019.

Moms Clean Air Force helps Michigan push for bold climate legislation.

In November 2019, Congressman Donald McEachin (VA-04) introduced the 100% Clean Economy Act of 2019 with Representatives Deb Haaland (NM-01), Debbie Dingell (MI-12), Earl Blumenauer (OR-3), Paul Tonko (NY-20), and Chellie Pingree (ME-01). This ambitious national bill aims to eliminate all climate pollution—including from transportation, electricity, buildings, and agriculture—by no later than 2050.

In the months leading up to the release of the bill, Michigan moms met with Members of Congress across the state to urge them to join as co-sponsors. Moms Clean Air Force Michigan thanks Representatives Debbie Dingell (MI-12), Dan Kildee (MI-05), Brenda Lawrence (MI-14), Andy Levin (MI-09), Elissa Slotkin (MI-08), and Haley Stevens (MI-11) for being among the over 150 original co-sponsors leading on this issue.

Click here to learn more about the bill.

Michigan Moms and Clean Air Kids meet with Representative Dingell (MI-12) in Washington, DC for the annual Play-In for Climate Action, July 2019.

We are fighting for cleaner cars—and air—for our children in Michigan.

Moms Clean Air Force has been working for years to aggressively defend our Clean Car Standards. These standards, adopted in 2012, reduced greenhouse gas emission from cars and light trucks. In 2020, the Trump administration finalized a dangerous rollback of these standards, with a reckless plan that will make our families sicker, increase climate pollution, and cost consumers money at the pump. As the heart of the U.S. auto industry, Michigan is critically important in the fight against this rollback.

To urge automakers to oppose the rollback, we delivered thousands of signatures to the Big Three automakers in Detroit, published op-eds, and launched a social media accountability campaign. Moms Clean Air Force members also attended the September 2018 EPA hearings in Dearborn, Michigan, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to make it clear that moms across the country want cleaner cars and expect our automakers to provide them.

Moms Clean Air Force continues to mobilize parents throughout the state, as we work with Michigan elected officials to urge them to take action on this important issue.

We are working to prevent the rollback of mercury protections that are critical in Michigan.

Moms Clean Air Force has been a leading voice in the fight against the rollback of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. The standards, which were finalized in 2012, set the first-ever national limits on hazardous air pollutants from coal-fired power plants, which used to be the single largest source of such pollution in the U.S. The standards have been incredibly effective; mercury levels have dropped 91% in Michigan since 2011. But these lifesaving standards that prevent toxic mercury from getting into the brains and bodies of our babies are under attack by Trump’s EPA.

The Great Lakes have long been plagued with mercury advisories for fish. Michigan moms are concerned about the food their children eat because contaminated fish can threaten fetuses and children’s health. Moms Clean Air Force members are mobilizing and rallying in Michigan to demand that these lifesaving standards stay in place.

Read more about mercury in the Great Lakes here.

Our children breathe polluted air.

Over 36,464 children in Wayne County (Detroit) have asthma. With an F grade for ozone pollution and a C for particle pollution from the American Lung Association, the county is a dangerous place for these children—and everyone—to breathe.

Air pollution issues in Michigan are not limited to the state’s largest city. Of the 25 counties that monitor ground level ozone, or smog (out of 83 counties total), over half received an F grade based on the number of high ozone days. Smog is a harmful lung irritant that is formed in the atmosphere when pollutants combine with heat and sunlight. It triggers asthma attacks and increases lung infections. As climate change causes summer temperatures to rise, dangerous breathing days due to smog will become more frequent.

As in most states, Michigan’s air pollution comes largely from coal-fired power plants, cars, and trucks. But because Michigan is the home of Motor City—and the heart of the US auto industry—Michigan’s moms have a special role to play in advocating for a clean car future. Moms Clean Air Force is educating Michiganders on the dangers of air pollution, as well as helping to push for stronger national air pollution standards.

Our lakes are at risk.

Michigan borders four of the five Great Lakes, the largest group of freshwater lakes on earth. The source of drinking water to more than 40 million people, the Great Lakes are threatened by pollution and declining water levels, which is already resulting in increased algal blooms. Scientists predict that climate change will cause water levels in the Great Lakes to drop significantly in coming decades, threatening this source of not only vital drinking water, but also transportation, tourism, commercial fishing operations, manufacturing operations, and sportsmen industries.

We have immense renewable energy potential.

The Great Lakes provide huge potential for offshore wind energy production. Michigan has the second most shoreline of any state in the country, and has already begun to capitalize on this resource. Michigan is currently one of the top 15 states in the country for wind energy production.

But despite growing renewable energy production, Michigan still relies heavily on coal. Coal is the state’s top energy source, creating two-fifths of the state’s electricity. Moving to renewable energy would help limit dangerous climate warming pollution as well clean up Michigan’s air by reducing particulates, smog-forming pollutants, toxic mercury, lead, and arsenic—all of which are byproducts of burning coal.

Past Events

February 2020
Michigan Organizer Elizabeth Hauptman attended the Downriver Environmental Town Hall meeting hosted by Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-12) focused on air pollution and PFAS in Trenton, Michigan.

Michigan Organizer Elizabeth Hauptman attended National Service, National Security, and the Value of Mentorship, a conversation with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Rep. Elissa Slotkin. Elizabeth was able to ask a question about climate and national security.

Members of Moms Clean Air Force Michigan attended a town hall for Congresswoman Haley Stevens (MI-11).

Moms Clean Air Force Michigan attended the 2020 Oakland County Climate, Jobs and Justice Platform to discuss local solutions to climate and pollution issues in Oakland County.

January 2020

Michigan Organizer Elizabeth Hauptman attended an environmental justice round table with Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI-13) and other climate action groups.

December 2019

Michigan Organizer Elizabeth Hauptman attended a Town Hall event with Representative Elissa Slotkin (MI-8).

Moms Clean Air Force Michigan spoke at a meeting for Citizen’s Climate Lobby about the power of naptime activism and the work of Moms Clean Air Force.

October 2019

Michigan Organizer Elizabeth Hauptman tabled at the Michigan State Medical Society Annual Scientific Meeting to share information about the impacts of air pollution on children’s health.

Moms Clean Air Force Michigan held two guest book readings of Senorita Mariposa with Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI-13) and Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-12).

Moms Clean Air Force Michigan hosted “read-ins” of Señorita Mariposa with Representative Tlaib (MI-13) and Representative Dingell (MI-12) in classrooms around the state in October 2019.

September 2019

Michigan Moms and Kids joined the Global Climate Strikes in Detroit, Brighton, and Ann Arbor.

July 2019

Members of Moms Clean Air Force Michigan attended the sixth annual Play-In for Climate Action on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

May 2018

Michigan Moms and Clean Air Kids testified in opposition to the rollback of the Clean Car Standards at the EPA hearing in Dearborn, MI, May 2018.

Midwest Field Organizers, Laura Burns and Kelly Nichols, traveled to Detroit to deliver over 13,000 petition signatures from Moms Clean Air Force members demanding that the Big Three Automakers—Ford, Chrysler, and GM—continue enforcing Clean Car Standards.