Myrelis “Mara” Diaz never expected to move to the U.S. mainland. That wasn’t in her plans.

But on Sept. 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria raged through Puerto Rico and tore up her San Juan apartment complex, leaving residents without running water. An AmeriCorps worker, Diaz spent the following days lugging heavy jugs of water up the stairs for her neighbors. She’d come home without food for herself. One day on a water delivery, when she tripped on the stairs and bruised a chunk of her leg, she decided she’d had enough.

Diaz, now 28, refers to herself as a climate change refugee. Less than two months after the hurricane hit, the graduate student fled Puerto Rico and relocated to Arizona for a new job, leaving the rest of her family behind.

“I’m in love with my island,” Diaz said. “This is not something that I chose for myself.”

Diaz is a part of Ecomadres, a program for Latinas fighting for clean air, and just one of dozens who traveled to Dallas to testify Thursday against the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to roll back methane emissions standards.

It was the only public hearing on President Donald Trump’s proposed rollback of protections, and it attracted dozens of environmental activists — many of them mothers — from all over the country, several of whom held back tears and trembled as they described the impacts that air pollution had on their lives. Several said they had lived near oilfields and had noticed their children’s health significantly decline.

EPA officials estimated the rule change would save the oil and gas industry $17 million to $19 million a year, and increase methane emissions by 370,000 short tons by the end of 2025. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that has 28 to 36 times the impact of carbon dioxide on global warming over a 100-year span, according to the EPA.

Michael Abboud, an EPA spokesman, said in a statement Thursday that the rule would “remove regulatory duplication” and save the oil and gas industry millions in compliance costs every year, “while maintaining health and environmental protection." The agency has received 963 comments so far on the new standards, he said. Written statements will be accepted until Nov. 25.

“EPA will review and consider all comments in the development of the final rule,” Abboud said.

Speakers at the hearing in the Earle Cabell Federal Courthouse included residents from southern Texas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Sharon Wilson, a Dallas-based senior organizer for the environmental nonprofit Earthworks, said her son fell into a serious state of depression after he graduated from college because of climate change. She held up a photo of him to the three-member panel of EPA officials, and said many millennials felt a sense of “despair” over what’s to come.

“When you go home, see his face,” Wilson said. “See my tears and find the courage to do the right thing.”

Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, came to support the rollback and said the oil and gas industry is still committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning into cleaner energy sources.

“The vast majority of production will be covered by this rule,” Sgamma said Thursday.

But even Native American leaders from tribes who have come to rely on the oil and gas industry’s revenues testified in opposition to the EPA proposal.

Carol Davis, a Navajo Nation member and coordinator of environmental nonprofit Diné CARE, said tribal communities have suffered from oil and gas companies’ methane waste on their land and are committed to transitioning to a clean energy economy.

Shaina Oliver, a Navajo Nation tribal member and advocate in Mom’s Clean Air Force in Denver, broke down in tears in her testimony as she told EPA officials they had an obligation to respect indigenous peoples’ voices and rights over their land.

“It’s really hurtful to see the people’s stories and to hear their pain,” Oliver said.

For Diaz, every moment she spends away from her island home is a reminder of the day she lost everything due to climate change, she said.

Some experts attribute the extreme amount of rainfall dumped by Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico to climate change, and they worry the intensity of hurricanes will only become greater.

Diaz came to tell her story for her nieces, she said, who still live in Puerto Rico and who are more likely to experience displacement.

“I urge you," she said fighting back tears,"to keep methane pollution safeguards, to fight climate change and demonstrate your commitment to our communities and our children."