Nearly everyone I know was born into pollution, even my children. So why is Gov. Jared Polis and his government are refusing to take any action to clean our increasingly polluted atmosphere.
Polis’ administration announced another delay in pursuing a requirement for auto manufacturers to sell a minimum of zero-emission medium and large-duty trucks, starting in 2024. The administration is also delaying another requirement requiring trucks, buses, or other similar-sized vehicles to burn less gas and emit less polluting emissions.
Commerce City’s safety and health is at grave risk by delaying protections from industry and limiting their exposure to particulate pollution. This delay is not only a delay, it will also reduce my quality of life in Commerce City, where I live close to three highways and the Suncor refinery. There are over 4,000 proposed fracking sites. Most of all, delays are delayed justice and invalidate Indigenous environmental justice coalitions’ efforts to save our biosphere and future generations’ sources of life, which by several scientific, fact-based accounts, we only have seven years to act on. The state should also ensure that it adheres to any previous rulemakings that require the need for meeting mandatory deadlines now.
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The administration wants to pursue additional clean transport policies and investments and return to the rulemaking in 2023. This is why the delay occurred. If industry is allowed to return to normal and over-reach for investments ahead of community health concerns and climate impacts, the system has normalized sacrifice zones for industry needs, proving it is not broken but working as designed to directly create and grow disproportionately-impacted communities. We are tired of seeing our communities be preyed upon by any sector of society with no interest in making any changes or taking any action.
This delay is not only inconvenient, but it also delays any healing for our communities statewide. The administration has an opportunity to make a difference about the inexorable pollution from Colorado’s transportation system. Since Irondale was named, tailpipe pollution has plagued my community for generations and has been ignored by politicians.
We are tired that our communities are being preyed on with no change and little concern to act soon by any part of society.
We are being told to wait another one year until we see a permanent solution. What will stop them putting off next year? Colorado will need to climb a steeper hill next year for incentives as well as clean transportation initiatives in more than 20 other states. For too long, particulate pollution has engulfed our cars, our lungs and our lives. A delay is an insult for a failing health care system and a failing transportation system becoming discriminatory due to the inability to take action to address community needs and incentives.
Womxn from the Mountain works to support Colorados Indigenous and disproportionately-impacted communities from environmental racism, and we are currently focused on restoring climate change through an environmental justice lens and specifically focused on reducing pollution from cars and trucks. We are fortunate to be not the only ones working to pass the low-NOx and clean truck rules.
As we work together with GreenLatinos and Colorado Working Families Party, Mi Familia Vota, the Denver Chapter of NAACP, and other groups, we are able to understand the interconnected challenges that face us in addressing climate change, clean air, and restoring our health. Our voices have been missing from policy discussions that directly impact us in similar and predatory ways for too long. Suncor and Interstate 70 represent prime examples of how we have been excluded, choked, and flushed from our homelands in support of the Indigenous communities I represent.
We live and work within these diesel emission death zones, where new housing is being built without any awareness or responsibility to change. Our children walk, run, and play near the river, as well as at rail yards, warehouses, and port highways. Families living near tailpipe pollution are more likely to die from COVID-19. They also suffer from many diseases, including anemia and asthma, low birth rates, cancers, and other chronic illnesses. The clean trucks rule directly benefits our community, cutting down toxic emissions that we breathe every day. It also offers us a transformative opportunity to stop living and dying in pollution.
Were not going to wait for these rules to be passed if we are going to be ignored at the cost of our future generations’ lives now. We all have the ability to see the particles in our air, whether it is hotter or shorter seasons with less water relief. However, the Polis administration has the ability to do the same. Let’s get our leaders to step up and take action where none have before. This will ensure our safety and health.
Our biosphere and my life, my children, and our community know nothing. It is often harmful. AnotherRestorative justice is not delayed. Through available sustainable solutions, our state has the opportunity to transform and heal itself. After so much loss to the communities most affected, who would want to delay this? Whether the Polis administration takes action or not, it will speak louder to my community than words and will impact our future generations.