Interfaith Power & Light

A Religious Response to Global Warming

SELC statement on challenge to Virginia’s cap-and-trade program

Published on July 15, 2021
Contact: Alexandra Werner-Winslow, Communications Manager (VA). Phone: 434-977-4090

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA — Today the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond issued an opinion rejecting to the Virginia Manufacturers Association’s 2020 challenge to Virginia’s cap-and-trade program. In response to the decision, SELC Senior Attorney Nate Benforado released the following statement:

“Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is already working to drive down carbon dioxide emissions in the Commonwealth while bringing in tens of millions of dollars to help low-income families reduce electricity bills and communities combat flooding. The Virginia Manufacturers Association’s last-ditch effort to upend this program not only would have subverted the will of the General Assembly, but also would have hurt millions of people across Virginia who stand to benefit from cleaner air to breathe and programs to deal with climate change. We are extremely pleased that the court saw right through the Virginia Manufacturers Association’s baseless arguments.”

Virginia is the first Southern state to participate in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Southern Environmental Law Center filed an amicus brief on behalf of our clients, Virginia Interfaith Power & Light, Appalachian Voices, and Wetlands Watch, supporting the Attorney General’s Office’s defense of this important program.

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Read the press release here

Washington Report: June 2021

By Jonathan Lacock-Nisly, IPL Federal Policy Associate
Washington Report - Sept 2020
In person advocacy is returning to DC!

On June 9th, Interfaith Power & Light and partners gathered with 100 faith leaders at the Capitol to show support for 100% clean electricity by 2035, as part of President Biden’s American Jobs Plan. (More here!) That plan has been at the center of 3 months of negotiations in Congress on an infrastructure and climate bill that looks ready to reshape our country’s roads, bridges, electricity, and climate response for decades to come. This moment is truly a generational opportunity.

Across the country, over 3,400 more faith leaders showed their support through an open letter to Congress, calling for a strong climate and infrastructure package that cares for the communities most harmed by our current fossil fuel infrastructure.

Infrastructure updates

The quick version:
Congress is gearing up to write and pass two infrastructure bills—one that is small, has very little for the climate, and is bipartisan, and another that is larger, climate focused, and likely to only be supported by Democrats.

The longer version:
Since unveiling the American Jobs Plan at the end of March, President Biden and Democrats in the Senate have been negotiating with Republican senators in hopes of finding an infrastructure package that at least 10 Republicans would support. That’s how many GOP senators it would take to overcome the filibuster, a Senate procedural rule requiring most legislation to receive 60 votes to pass.

However, it isn’t the only way to pass a bill in the Senate. Packages that deal mostly with spending (like this one) can be passed with a simple majority vote through a process called budget reconciliation. Yet several moderate Democrats have insisted the reconciliation process only be used as a last resort.

On June 24th, the White House reached a tentative deal on an infrastructure bill with a group of bipartisan senators. We’re deeply concerned that the deal looks to have very little for clean energy, climate, and environmental justice.

However, we’re encouraged that President Biden and Speaker Pelosi both put out statements saying that they would only support this bill in tandem with a budget reconciliation bill that covers climate priorities. Congress is now turning to the task of writing and passing two bills—one that is small, has very little for the climate, and is bipartisan, and another that is larger, climate focused, and likely to only be supported by Democrats.

What can you do?

Talk to your senators, and let them know that an infrastructure plan must include climate action to have your support. It’s a message every senator needs to be hearing right now. Use this link to call and remind them that climate as a part of infrastructure action is:

-A moral imperative! Our communities depend on our elected leaders to address the climate crisis and act for environmental justice. Caring for the climate is a form of caring for our neighbors.

Speaking after the faith leaders event at the Capitol, IPL’s President Rev. Susan Hendershot told a reporter, “”Proverbs 29:18 says, ‘Without a vision the people perish,’… We know that without a vision the people perish, and without action to bring that vision to life, all that we hold most precious and sacred will perish.”

-A factual imperative! Our current infrastructure is crumbling in part because it wasn’t built to withstand a changing climate. From winter superstorms causing power outages in Texas, to hurricanes flooding cities and sewer systems in the Southeast, to wildfires forcing blackouts in the West, our infrastructure must be updated to deal with the changes we’re already seeing. It would be foolish to miss this chance to also address the root causes of those climate disruptions.

You can see our full faith, climate, and infrastructure fact sheet here. Our top priorities include:
-Expanding clean, renewable energy sources and passing a Clean Energy Standard to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2035
-40% of funds being spent in the communities hurt the most by our current polluting economy
-Electrifying transportation and expanding public transit

For the People Act (H.R. 1 / S. 1)
This important voting rights legislation (see fact sheet here) passed the House earlier this year. It had stalled in the Senate, but it gained new life this week with a compromise measure from Sen. Manchin that includes many of the essential pieces of the bill.

This new version now looks to have support of a majority of senators, but still can’t pass because of the filibuster. We continue to call on the Senate to do what is right for our democracy and pass this essential legislation with a simple majority vote.

Episcopalians stand in solidarity with Minnesota’s Anishinaabe to stop oil pipeline construction

Published on Jun 11, 2021 By Lynette Wilson, Episcopal News Service

[Episcopal News Service] Earlier this week, thousands of people, including Episcopalians from as far as Oregon and Washington, D.C., answered an invitation from Anishinaabe women and traveled to the headwaters of the Mississippi River – Bear Creek, as the Anishinaabe call it – to join them in a nonviolent protest to stop construction on an oil pipeline crossing treaty land in northern Minnesota where the tribe hunts, fishes and gathers wild rice.

“From the Anishinaabe side, their interpretation is that the land is given by God; it is holy land, it’s sacred land. As co-tenants of that land, they are responsible for anything and everything that happens there; it’s not theirs to own, it’s theirs to care for,” the Rev. Matthew Cobb told Episcopal News Service on June 9. Cobb is a regional missioner for the Episcopal Church in Minnesota and serves four congregations in the northern third of the state: two on the Leech Lake Reservation, one on the Red Lake Nation and one in Bemidji.

The Anishinaabe, or Ojibwe, as the Indigenous peoples in the upper Great Lakes region have been called, see themselves in covenant with nature, explained Cobb, who was invited by the Rev. Robert Two Bulls, Minnesota’s Indigenous missioner, to serve the church’s northern region. Through that covenant with nature, the Anishinaabe take care of the land and the water. Read more here

Oil pipeline foes protest Enbridge’s Line 3 in Minnesota

Posted on June 7, 2021 By Dave Kolpack, AP News

SOLWAY, Minn. (AP) — Hundreds of protesters vowing to do whatever it takes to stop a Canadian-based company’s push to replace an aging pipeline blocked a pump station Monday in northern Minnesota, with some people chaining themselves to construction equipment before police began making arrests.

Environmental and tribal groups say Enbridge Energy’s plan to rebuild Line 3, which would carry Canadian tar sands oil and regular crude from Alberta to Wisconsin, would worsen climate change and risk spills in sensitive areas where Native Americans harvest wild rice, hunt, fish, gather medicinal plants, and claim treaty rights. Read more here

Faith Leaders Call on Biden Administration to Step Up Climate Commitments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 6, 2021

Contact: Susan Stephenson
[email protected]
(510) 484-7198

Faith Leaders Call on Biden Administration to Step Up Climate Commitments
Offer examples of religious communities already at zero carbon

Today Interfaith Power & Light released a letter to President Biden signed by 1,000+ people of faith, including hundreds of clergy and other faith leaders, calling for increased U.S. ambition on climate. The letter also highlighted efforts by congregations to reduce emissions substantially, including three that are zero carbon.

At the U.N. climate conference later this year, other nations will want to see what the world’s largest historic polluter has done since we exited the accord, and what we will pledge to do as we rejoin. Internationally, the fact is current pledges are not sufficient to keep global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius — or even under 2 degrees, the upper limit of the Paris accord. A strong and credible commitment from the U.S. will encourage other countries to step up their own ambition.

“Interfaith Power & Light and our network of 22,000 congregations around the country are grateful that President Biden listened to people of faith and conscience and followed through with his promise to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office,” said Rev. Susan Hendershot, president of Interfaith Power & Light, “but this is only the very beginning of what we need to do to get the U.S. and world on track to a truly sustainable future.”

The letter reads in part: “Later this year, at the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, I urge you to make a U.S. commitment that goes beyond the Paris agreement. For the sake of our children’s future and all of Creation, we must achieve at least 50% reductions by 2030 and a 100% clean energy future by 2050, while supporting developing nations.”

The good news is that the U.S has already begun working toward those goals. While the previous administration was rolling back climate protections, Americans were continuing to reduce emissions in our houses of worship, homes, schools, and other institutions. Some have cut their emissions by half or more already.

“The next step is setting ambitious goals and demonstrating real commitment to reduce our country’s carbon pollution, along with support to help the developing world adapt and transition to sustainable clean energy. As the world’s wealthiest nation and largest historical emitter, we have a moral obligation to support communities suffering the most from a changing climate,” said Rev. Hendershot.

People of faith and conscience view the climate crisis as one of the defining moral issues of our time. A recent poll commissioned by Interfaith Power & Light found that almost three-quarters (73%) of voters say they are worried about climate change, including 87% of Black Protestants, 82% of nonwhite Catholics, 77% of white Catholics, 76% of Jews, and 57% of white evangelical Protestants.

More than 8 in 10 of these faith voters see their responsibility to care for God’s creation as a reason to act on the climate crisis. Our country should follow the example of these zero carbon faith institutions, and make a stronger commitment on climate, by reducing our own emissions at home and helping developing nations to rapidly shift to clean energy.

These three congregational signers of the letter are already cutting emissions to zero or near-zero:

Church of Our Saviour in Arlington, Massachusetts

The rectory of this small church is now saving 15 tons CO2 per year with new heat pumps, with of total savings $1,710 in annual energy costs. Read their story here

Unitarian Universalist Society, in Coralville, Iowa

They have built the greenest church in Iowa, a LEED certified, Net-Zero building with geothermal, solar, and electric car charging stations. Read their story here

The Church of St. Martin in Davis, California

This “Cool Congregation” is certified at 100% reduction as a net-zero congregation! Read more here.

The Rev. Megan M. Traquair, bishop of the Diocese of Northern California for the Episcopal Church, blessing the solar panels at St. Martin’s (Photo by Johan Verink).

To learn more or to get a copy of the letter to President Biden, email Susan Stephenson at [email protected]

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