56 Faith Organizations Tell U.S. Senate To Save the Clean Air Act

A diverse group of 56
denominations and faith-based organizations released a joint letter Tuesday
calling on the U.S. Senate to leave intact the power of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect the environment and
public’s health.

In particular, the religious leaders noted that the effort by Sen. Jay
Rockefeller (D-WV) to delay EPA controls on greenhouse gas emissions should
be turned down. The letter from the 56 national, regional and state faith groups comes as
some members of Congress have threatened to undermine the EPA’s authority to
regulate greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants, including ozone
emissions (smog).

The joint letter opens as follows: “As communities and people of faith, we
are called to protect and serve God’s great Creation and work for justice
for all of God’s people. We believe that the United States must take all
appropriate and available actions to prevent the worst impacts of climate
change; we therefore urge you to oppose any efforts to undermine the
authority of the Clean Air Act (CAA) to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
We have seen various challenges to the CAA this session including Senator
Rockefeller’s proposal to delay regulation of greenhouse gases under the
Environmental Protection Agency. We urge you to protect the Clean Air Act
and allow the EPA to use the full strength of the law to ensure that God’s
Creation and God’s children remain healthy.”

Rev. Harriet Olson, deputy general secretary, United Methodist Women,
General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church, said: “As
leaders in our communities of faith, we take very seriously our charge to
act as stewards of God’s Creation. Preserving a strong Clean Air Act and
limiting the harm done by climate change are very important and concrete
things we can do today working together as people of faith acting in that
stewardship capacity.”

Rev. Michael McClain, southeastern coordinator, African American Climate
Initiative, National Council of Churches, noted that “African Americans are
disproportionately impacted by the effects of air pollution and climate
change. More than 70% of African Americans and Latinos live in
counties that violate federal air pollution and ground-level ozone, which
have extreme health impacts, including aggravated asthma, chronic
bronchitis, and premature death. Asthma is one of the leading serious
chronic illnesses in African American children.”

Rabbi Daniel J. Swartz, Temple Hesed, Scranton, PA., said: "Jewish values
teach us to be good caretakers of our earth and all its resources, and to
protect the life and health of all people. The Clean Air Act has helped to
ensure that we protect the earth and we must ensure that this continues.”
Rabbi Swartz is the author of “To Till and To Tend: A Guide for Jewish
Environmental Study and Action,” published by the Coalition on the
Environment and Jewish Life, and “Faith Communities and Environmental
Health: From Global to Local,” for which he won the 2005 Award for
Excellence in Professional and Scholarly Publishing from the Association of
American Publisher.

Rev. Chris Boerger, bishop, Northwest Washington Synod, Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America, said: “For more than 30 years, the Clean Air Act has
protected our air and the health of all creation, embodying the Christian
ethic of stewardship for God’s earth. Climate change presents a critical
challenge for the future health of our planet and each of us, and the Clean
Air Act is a key component of efforts to address that threat. Efforts to
interfere with this vital legislation threaten the progress we have made in
caring for the earth as well as the health and well-being of future
generations.”

The balance of the joint letter reads as follows:

The [Clean Air Act] has a strong history of reducing pollution and
protecting God’s children and God’s Creation, successfully decreasing the
prevalence of acid rain, responding to health threatening smog and ozone
problems faced in our major urban areas, and generally improving the air
quality of our nation in the decades since it passage.

It is only appropriate that the CAA continue to oversee any and all
air-related challenges that we face. In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that
greenhouse gas emissions, the leading cause of climate change are, in fact,
covered under the CAA and could be regulated by the EPA. New CAA regulations
limiting greenhouse gas emissions will also ensure that the largest
emitters, such as power plants and factories, use the best available
technologies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and begin to shift to
sustainable forms of energy.

The EPA, in its efforts to implement the CAA in an appropriate manner, has
already proposed to tailor the CAA to exempt small carbon emitters and apply
them only to large sources that have long been subject to similar standards
for other pollutants.

Further changes to the Clean Air Act would limit the EPA’s ability to live
out its role and diminish the strength of the law. Senator Rockefeller’s
bill, and other proposals, would allow our nation’s substantial contribution
to global climate change to continue unchecked, exposing vulnerable
communities to the impacts of climate change. In addition, this attempt to
undermine the authority of the EPA and the CAA to regulate greenhouse gas
emissions will interfere with an effective U.S. response to this global
crisis.

Any attempt to undermine the Clean Air Act threatens the well being of at
risk communities, undermines efforts to shift to a sustainable energy
future, and inevitably will impact the right of all of God’s children to
live in a healthy world. Congress should instead focus its efforts on
passing comprehensive climate legislation and national energy policy as a
means to ensure a just and sustainable future for God’s Creation.

The signers of the faith organization letter are (in alphabetical order):

Church of the Brethren
Church World Service
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life
Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach
The Episcopal Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Franciscan Action Network
Interfaith Power and Light
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Jewish Reconstructionist Federation
National Council of Churches USA
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Washington Office
Presbyterian Church (USA) Office of Public Witness
The Missionary Oblates, Justice Peace/Integrity of Creation Office
Union for Reform Judaism
Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
The United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries
United Methodist Church – General Board of Church and Society
United Methodist Women

State and Regional Groups

Arizona Interfaith Power and Light
California Council of Churches
California Council of Churches IMPACT
Connecticut’s Interfaith Power and Light, a project of Interreligious
Eco-Justice Network
Earth Ministry
Eco-Justice Ministries
Ecumenical Minstries of Oregon’s Interfaith Network for Earth Concerns
The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut
Faith in Place
Georgia Interfaith Power and Light
Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light
GreenFaith
Illinois Interfaith Power & Light
Iowa Interfaith Power and Light
Kentucky Interfaith Power and Light
Lutheran Coalition for Public Policy in Minnesota
Maine Council of Churches
Maine Interfaith Power and Light
Michigan Interfaith Power and Light
Minnesota Council of Churches
New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light
North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light
Pennsylvania Council of Churches
Presbyterians for Earth Care
Rhode Island Interfaith Power and Light
Tennessee Interfaith Power and Light
Texas Impact
Virginia Interfaith Center
Virginia Interfaith Power and Light
Voices for Earth Justice (MI)
Washington Association of Churches
Washington Interfaith Power and Light
Wisconsin Council of Churches
Wisconsin Interfaith Power and Light