How a group of Latinas is advocating for cleaner air
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When Montgomery County school bus driver Carmen Cortez first took the wheel of an electric bus in 2021, she quickly noticed how the quieter engine and lack of diesel exhaust made for a more pleasant ride for herself and the students. But it wasn’t until the following year, when she started volunteering with environmental advocates from EcoMadres, that she realized the important role electric buses could play in combating climate change.
A cheerful 52-year-old originally from El Salvador, Cortez was among the first bus drivers to try out the new electric fleet serving schools in Montgomery County. The county’s public school board acquired electric buses thanks to a deal with Highland Electric Fleets, a company based in Massachusetts that acquires and maintains electric buses for its customers in exchange for a yearly fee.
“I remember I drove that bus, and there was no noise at all. It didn’t smell like diesel,” says Cortez, who was promoted in 2022 and now is in charge of training bus drivers to maneuver electric buses, among other things.
Not only do buses running on diesel emit greenhouse gases that fuel climate change, but according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), exposure to diesel exhaust can have severe health impacts in the form of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, especially in children.
Bus drivers spend a large part of every day cooped up inside the yellow vehicles. If diesel-powered, a school bus can have much higher levels of pollutants than the air surrounding it, according to a study by the nonprofit Environment and Human Health, Inc. These higher emissions can put bus drivers at a higher risk for cancer.
The new electric buses delighted Elizabeth Brandt, a parent at Rock Creek Forest Elementary School in Chevy Chase, Maryland, one of the schools Cortez served. At the time, she was also a national field manager at Moms Clean Air Force, a national environmental group that launched EcoMadres in 2018 as a Latino outreach initiative.
Brandt saw an opportunity to highlight Rock Creek Forest and Cortez, a mother of four who had spent many hours inhaling the stench of diesel exhaust each week for years before starting work with the county’s e-bus fleet.
“When I saw [Cortez] show up in the electric bus, I was like, ‘I don’t know if you know the whole background to how we got these buses, but I’m invested in this, and I think people want to hear your story,’” Brandt recalls telling Cortez.
In 2022 Cortez met with Rock Creek Forest’s leadership and Carolina Peña-Alarcón, former national program manager for EcoMadres.
“That’s how we found out that the benefits were felt by everyone involved,” says Peña-Alarcón.
Cortez became a spokesperson for EcoMadres in a 2022 campaign promoting the benefits of electric buses among Montgomery County public school staff and local officials.
“We got along well and began to do many things together for the environment,” says Cortez.
While she had to end her EcoMadres volunteering after stepping into her new position as a radio bus operator, Cortez continues playing a key role in the county’s transition from diesel buses by training other drivers on the new electric buses.
Cortez is one of many people who have volunteered for EcoMadres since the organization’s inception six years ago. Today, EcoMadres has eight staff members based in D.C., Iowa, Nevada, Virginia, Arizona, Tennessee and Colorado.
According to Danielle Berkowitz-Sklar, the national field events coordinator at Moms Clean Air Force, the environmental group founded EcoMadres to make the climate advocacy space more accessible to Latino residents.
“Our philosophy is to meet families where they are,” says Berkowitz-Sklar. “We know that — especially when we’re talking about Latino communities, a lot of whom are working families — being part of advocacy is sometimes a luxury.”
EcoMadres staff speaks with residents at community events about the health impacts of air pollution and how to protect one’s family and advocate for climate legislation. Some of their online programs include EcoCharlas (“EcoChats” in Spanish) and workshops to train people to testify before the EPA.
“Our goal is to bring people who care about this issue — or are noticing these issues and are concerned for the health and futures of their kids — into these rooms with lawmakers at events with speaking roles,” says Berkowitz-Sklar.
For instance, Moms Clean Air Force and EcoMadres staff and volunteers testify before and submit comments to the EPA when the agency considers environmental proposals affecting children and families. Some of those rulings have recently been finalized, which prompted EcoMadres and Moms to praise the Biden administration’s EPA publicly.
Liz Hurtado, the national field manager at Moms Clean Air Force who also works with EcoMadres, joined EPA administrator Michael Regan, a 2021 Biden administration appointee, when he announced stricter regulations on soot pollution. Soot comes in the form of tiny particles (about 30 times smaller than a human hair) released from cars, power plants and other fossil-fuel-burning activities.
“We’ve had some amazing wins. [The] EPA is hearing us out,” says Hurtado, whose daughter, Lena, got to introduce Regan at the press conference.
In February, Regan was one of several keynote speakers at Moms Clean Air Force’s “Climate Disruption, Air Pollution, and Young People’s Health: Challenges and Solutions” summit, which was held at the National Press Club in downtown D.C.
The summit gathered professionals in various policy, research and advocacy fields to speak on panels about climate change’s impact on frontline communities and discuss what mitigating solutions can be in place now.
Moms and EcoMadres are awaiting finalized EPA regulations on pollution issues they testified about last year and continue to advocate against plastic incineration. They also support two congressional proposals that aim to promote young people’s mental health and access to education in the face of climate change.
EcoMadres is also planning a clean-air summit to take place partly in Spanish.
“You’re probably getting the exclusive right now,” says Hurtado. “We hope to do something later this year — perhaps next year — that is also more inclusive of our Latino and Spanish-speaking audiences.”
An earlier version of this story misspelled Moms Clean Air Force. The story also incorrectly stated that EcoMadres is planning a summit fully in Spanish. The summit will be partly in Spanish.
– Story by Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe
– Copy edited by Crystal Lee and Michelle Benitez
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