Thank you for the opportunity to testify
. My n ame is Ke ll y Nicho l s and I am a member of Moms Clean Air Force. We are a com mu n ity of mo re than ha i fa m i llion moms who are fight i ng fo r clean air and a safe climate for our k ids. He re in Illinois we have over 20 , 000 members. I have three and a halfyear old twins and Jive in Highland Park, Illinois , not far from Route 41 and I nterstate 94
. The proposed clean truck standards wi ll make our freight trucks cleaner and more efficie nt for years to co me. That ' s a step in the right d irection for c h i ld ren ' s health. But w h i le the proposed standards are a good first step , I u r ge you to strengthe n these standards to ensure the greatest reductions in oil use and globa l warming emissions
. My son has al ready man ifested symptoms in dicat in g that he wi ll like l y have outd oo r a ll erg ies , like 

### his father and I do. W ith the increase i n very hot, hum id days , I've not iced more ozone alerts. 

### I know for me , on days when there are ozone alerts , my symptoms get worse . I don ' t want my child to be that miserab le and not be able to go outside to have a normal chi ldhood
. 

### I see him get knocked around by every virus that rolls thro u gh , and I'm concerned that makes h im more vul nerab le fo r asthma, 

### w hich co ul d eas ily be exacerbated by our proximity to major freig h t truck routes . While l of course am concerned about my chi ld ' s heal th , 1 a l so know that frequently there are more freight depots an d shipping companies in fro nt line ne ighbor h oods where pollution i s worse than my neck of the woods
. In Illi n ois, t he rate of ch i ldhood asthma i s at 1 3% , which i s 1% h igher than the nat io n al ra te.' The age-adj u sted asthma mortal ity rate in Chicago was n ear ly five times higher in non-Hispanic blacks than in non - Hispanic whites
. 2 Th i s rule will have a significan tly posit ive impact on these affected communities
. Not o nl y wi ll the rule have an impact on the health of c hil dren, if fm al ized as proposed , the standards woul d cut oi l use by over a mi ll ion barrels every two days. By not burning that oil , the Un ited States would , ove r the li feti me of trucks affected by the rul e , avoid 1 billion metr ic tons of global warm in g em i ssio n s. That's roughly equival ent to the e mi ssions created by powering 

### all U
. S. house h olds for a year. That creates n ot only cleaner a ir , but a future o ur c h ildren can count on . I think we need to do more than the proposed standard
. To protect our children, we need standards to be st rengthe ned to achieve 40 perce nt fue l sav ings by 2025
. If the fi n a l proposal i s strengthened in this way , it wou ld save an additional 200 , 000 barrels of oil per day , and avoid an additional40 m ill ion metric tons of g lobal warming em i ssions arm ual ly-eq u ivalent to shutting down 12 coal

- fired power plants. Imagine the incredible impact that wou ld have on children ' s health and all of our futures. I support the effort to make our tru cks mor e effic ient, and 

### 1 ur ge you to fi n alize stronger standards that reduce trucks ' fue l use by 40% by 2025. This wi ll help protect the health of my kids and my community , now and in the future. Thank you for the opportunity to test ify
.

' "2010 Ch i ld Asthma Data: Prevalence T ables." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers fo r Disease Control and Prevention, 16 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 July 2013 1 Thomas, S.D

. , Whitman, S

. (1999). "Asthma Hospitalizations and Mortality in Chicago, An Epidemiologic Overview" CHEST, 116, 4.