Presbyterians March for Climate Justice

This Sunday, Sept. 21, Presbyterians will be gathering in New York City with activists and other people of faith to join the People’s Climate March, which is leading up to high-level United Nations climate negotiations next week. U.S. engagement in the international climate talks is essential, as U.S. emissions have disproportionately contributed to the global carbon pollution problem and the already changing climate, which most severely affects the world’s poorest people.*

To connect with other Presbyterians attending the March, visit Presbyterians for Earth Care’s recent blog post. Make sure to check out their link to the plans for the Interfaith Contingent. And even if you can’t be in New York this weekend, you can still join the movement to address global climate change and the United States’ serious carbon pollution problem.

Click here to sign the Faith Climate Petition. 

God has called us to be good stewards of the Earth and care for all of God’s creation, but carbon pollution from our favorite form of energy is fundamentally altering our climate. Together with our ecumenical and interreligious partners, the PC(USA) is calling on political leaders in the U.S. to address issue of climate change and to engage with the international community in coming up with a sustainable response. Join your voice with others as we call on U.S. leaders to take on leadership in helping to craft a moral global framework for the UN climate negotiations.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is also working on a step-by-step approach to addressing climate change (we would need Congressional action for a more comprehensive plan). Right now, the EPA is taking public comment for a new rule proposed to regulate carbon pollution from power plants, which is our economy’s largest carbon emitter (about 30%). There are currently no limits on the amount of greenhouse gases power plants can emit. This is why reducing carbon emissions from power plants must be a top priority for the U.S. if we hope to prevent the worst impacts of climate change and ensure a just and sustainable world for our generation and those to come. The comment period has been extended for two more months, so make sure you get your comments in while there is still time!

Visit our Action Center to tell the EPA to enact these important standards that will help to save lives and help our country transition to a cleaner energy economy.

There are several ways for churches to get involved in the movement to address global climate change.

1. Consider becoming an Earth Care Congregation, a PC(USA) opportunity to incorporate care of God’s Creation in every aspect of our lives together, from worship to lifestyle.
2. Stand in solidarity with this Sunday’s marchers by ringing your church bells. Ring time: Sept. 21, 1:00pm in whatever time zone you are located.
3. Join a Climate March in your home city! – All over the country, people will gather for solidarity People’s Climate Marches. Find an event near you.
4.  Make a pledge to reduce carbon in your own household or faith community.
5. Check out the PC(USA) journal Justice Unbound’s current series on climate change and the movement to address it.
6. Find worship and lifestyle resources from the Presbyterian Hunger Program and our ecumenical partner Creation Justice Ministries.
7. If you are in the greater New York area, find other events related to the climate summit.

*In 2008, the PC(USA) General Assembly approved The Power to Change: U.S. Energy Policy and Global Warming, where it wrote:

“As citizens of the United States, which has historically produced more greenhouse gases than any other country, and which is currently responsible for over a fifth of the world’s annual emissions, we implore our nation to accept its moral responsibility to address global warming.

In agreement with four prior General Assemblies (202nd, 210th, 211th, and 215th) that have called on the U.S. government to ratify the Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol [the successor to Kyoto will be finalized in Paris in 2015], we ask the U.S. government to do nothing less than repent of its efforts to block consensus and to work with the international community as it develops a binding agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

“As advocates for justice, we reject the claim that all nations should shoulder an equal measure of the burden associated with mitigating climate change. Industrialized nations like the United States that have produced most of the emissions over the last three centuries deserve to shoulder the majority of the burden.

Energy Efficiency Bill on the Senate Floor!

The Senate is set to vote any day now on significant legislation to cut carbon emissions and address
climate change. Now is the time to tell your senators to stand up for energy efficiency, pollution reduction, and clean jobs.  Contact them today, while there's still time.

The Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013 (S. 1392) could mean an end to the drought of action on climate change in Congress. The bipartisan legislation represents a significant step forward in the ongoing effort to pass through Congress policy that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

If passed, this bill would cut government and industrial energy waste and help homeowners finance energy efficiency improvements, among other energy-saving measures. One study, published by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), finds that this legislation will create up to 174,000 jobs, save consumers and businesses up to $15.2 billion per year, and remove up to 87.6 million metric tons of CO2 from our atmosphere by 2030.[i]

Write to your Senators here!

Energy inefficiency is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, not to mention that it is an added and unnecessary expense in homes and businesses.  According to a paper by the National Academy of Engineering, “building operations and materials manufacturing, the ‘built environment’ is responsible for 52 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.”  Further, “energy lost through inefficient windows represents 30 percent of a building’s heating and cooling energy” in the United States.[ii]  This bill would take some common-sense steps toward improving energy efficiency in buildings, especially federal buildings, and would go a long way to reducing climate-change-causing emissions and saving money.

The bill was introduced by Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Rob Portman and is also called the Shaheen-Portman bill. While the bill enjoys support from both sides of the aisle in Congress, as well as advocacy groups and among the public at large, its passage is far from guaranteed. And dangerous, controversial amendments threaten to undermine the spirit of cooperation and consensus that makes the bill possible. We need your help. Please contact your Senators today and let them know that you support this common-sense bill to invest in renewable energy.

What does the Bill do?

The bill works at the crossroads of science, the federal government, and private sector companies looking to invest in a thriving, competitive economy and environmental protections that will safeguard our country’s human and natural resources for the next generation.

This bill will increase energy efficiency standards, save families, governments and businesses billions of dollars, create thousands of jobs, reduce national carbon dioxide emissions, and help reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources.  Through its passage, Congress can begin a wave of legislative solutions necessary to address the climate disruption harming our nation's people, communities, ecosystems, and economy. 

Shaheen-Portman envisions achieving net-zero-energy building by 2030, and it establishes new efficiency standards for the development of federal building codes that will help us get there. These criteria would then be codified in a transparent process. Once established, the federal government will work in tandem with state and tribal governments, as well as with the private sector, to help provide the financial support and materials needed to see that these standards are met in new buildings and retrofits. These standards do not only apply to the private sector – the federal government, the largest energy user in the country, must follow them as well.

Finally, Shaheen-Portman provides for a dynamic process to ensure the future success of energy-efficient construction. The bill encourages the Department of Energy to work with private sector partners to invest in research, to develop of innovative energy technology and to share best practices with one another.

Why We Need You Now:

With hours to go until this breakthrough legislation comes to the Senate floor, spoilers are preparing to undermine this step forward on addressing climate change. Despite the bill’s popular support and endorsement from a wide array of stakeholders, some in the Senate are eager to see its demise. They might stall the vote or, worse yet, propose counterproductive amendments in order to break the carefully-built nonpartisan consensus for progress.

Please ask your senators to keep the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill. The bill is being considered on the Senate floor, to please email your Senators this week.

Many thanks to the Friends Committee on National Legislation for much of the content of this action alert.

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[i] “Economic Impacts of the Energy Efficiency Provisions in the Energy Savings & Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013 and Select Amendments,” authored by Rachel Young, Sara Hayes, Steven Nadel, Garrett Herndon, and Jim Barrett; published by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy; http://aceee.org/white-paper/shaheen-portman-2013; accessed 9/12/13.

[ii] “Building Materials, Energy Efficiency, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” authored by Robin Roy and Brandon Tinianov; published by the National Academy of Engineering of the National Academies; http://www.nae.edu/Publications/Bridge/EnergyEfficiency14874/BuildingMaterialsEnergyEfficiencyandtheAmericanRecoveryandReinvestmentAct.aspx; accessed 9/12/13.

Action Alert: Support Energy Efficiency Bill

Recently two senators-- Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH), -- introduced the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act (S. 761). This bill seeks to increase energy efficiency standards, save consumer and businesses billions of dollars, add tens of thousands of jobs to the economy, and significantly cut carbon dioxide emissions. On Wednesday of this week, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will consider the bill, the first step towards a vote by the full Senate.

Your voice is needed to ensure that the Senate passes this important and bipartisan proposal to reduce our nation's energy costs, create new jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions! Click here to reach out to your senators now!

In 2008, the Presbyterian General Assembly approved "The Power to Change: U.S. Energy Policy and Global Warming," where it urged that we do all we can to reduce our energy usage, our carbon emissions, and our contribution to global climate change.  This bill is not comprehensive climate legislation, but in the absence of that political possibility, this bill is a good step in the right direction.

Energy efficiency is a common-sense approach to many challenges our nation faces. Efficiency costs less than new power generation, saves families and businesses money, and boosts the economy. It is an effective way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and our dependence on foreign sources of energy. A report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy on a similar bill introduced last year found that it would create 80,000 jobs, save $4 billion in energy costs, and cut carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 by an amount equivalent to the emissions of 7.5 million cars (and 26 million cars by 2030).

When the bill leaves committee and is debated on the Senate floor, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) plan to offer an amendment to the bill that would direct the Secretary of Energy to establish a pilot program to award grants to nonprofit organizations, including religious non-profits -- like PC(USA) congregations -- to make energy-efficiency improvements to their buildings. Because many of the current incentives for energy efficiency are found in the tax code, it has historically been difficult for non-profit organizations to fund such improvements; this amendment would enable our churches and other non-profits to invest in more energy efficient buildings.

This bipartisan bill demonstrates that we can care for God's creation and our most vulnerable neighbors and communities in ways that create jobs, reduce costs, and build our economy. Write your Senators and ask for their support of S. 761 and the Klobuchar-Hoeven amendment today!

J. Herbert Nelson thanks Senator Rockefeller for his comments on coal

Last week, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), a fellow Presbyterian, went to the Senate floor to give a bold and important speech about coal. It's a major shift for a politician from Appalachia- see the video.

Office of Public Witness Director J. Herbert Nelson sent the following letter, expressing our support and thanks, to Senator Rockefeller.

_________________________________________________________________________

June 28, 2012

The Honorable Jay Rockefeller

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Rockefeller,

Thank you for your bold and honest comments on the Senate floor last Wednesday, June 20, regarding the future of the coal industry in West Virginia. As Reformed Christians, we are deeply concerned about the well-being of our neighbors in West Virginia, and the effects that mercury pollution, climate change from greenhouse gas emissions, and mountaintop removal mining can have on families in Appalachia and around the world.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) stands with you in your support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule on mercury and air toxics, and we hope that you will continue support the EPA and other regulatory agencies as they work to improve the lives of all of God’s children and care for God’s good Creation.

As the psalmist reminds us, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.” (Psalm 24:1) May the God of all Creation be with you always.

Sincerely,

J. Herbert Nelson, II

Director for Public Witness

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)