Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Kelly Nichols and I am a member of Moms 

Clean Air Force. We are a community of more than haifa million moms who are fighting for 

clean air and a safe climate for our kids. Here 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 Interstate 94. The proposed clean truck standards will make our freight trucks cleaner and 

more efficient for years to come. That's a step in the right direction for children's health. But 

while the proposed standards are a good first step, I urge you to strengthen these standards to 

ensure the greatest reductions in oil use and global warming emissions. 

My son has already manifested symptoms indicating that he will likely have outdoor all ergies, 

like his father and I do. With the increase in very hot, humid days, I've noticed 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 miserable and not be able to go outside to have a normal childhood. I see him 

get knocked around by every virus that rolls through, and I'm concerned that makes him more 

vulnerable for asthma, which could easily be exacerbated by our proximity to major freight truck 

routes. 

While l of course am concerned about my child's health, 1 also know that frequently there are 

more freight depots and shipping companies in frontline neighborhoods where pollution is worse 

than my neck of the woods. In Illinois, the rate of childhood asthma is at 13%, which is 1% 

higher than the national rate.' The age-adjusted asthma mortality rate in Chicago was nearly five 

times higher in non-Hispanic blacks than in non-Hispanic whites. 

2 This rule will have a 

significantly positive impact on these affected communities. 

Not only will the rule have an impact on the health of children, if fmalized as proposed, the 

standards would cut oil use by over a million barrels every two days. By not burning that oil, the 

United States would, over the lifetime of trucks affected by the rule, avoid 1 billion metric tons 

of global warming emissions. That's roughly equivalent to the emissions created by powering all 

U.S. households for a year. That creates not only cleaner air, but a future our children can count 

on. 

I think we need to do more than the proposed standard. To protect our children, we need 

standards to be strengthened to achieve 40 percent fuel savings by 2025. If the final proposal is 

strengthened in this way, it would save an additional 200,000 barrels of oil per day, and avoid an 

additional40 million metric tons of global warming emissions armually-equivalent to shutting 

down 12 coal-fired power plants. Imagine the incredible impact that would have on children's 

health and all of our futures. 

I support the effort to make our trucks more efficient, and 1 urge you to finalize stronger 

standards that reduce trucks' fuel use by 40% by 2025. This will help protect the health of my 

kids and my community, now and in the future. Thank you for the opportunity to testify . 

' "2010 Child Asthma Data: Prevalence Tables." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for 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.