Margaret Goes to Washington
OCICE Board Secretary, Margaret Mapes attended the annual "Washington Week" meetings with the National Religious Coalition on Creation Care (NRCCC) coalition members in February 2010.
On Sunday, February 21, Coalition members met for orientation on the week’s events and to receive materials for distribution to legislators and other appointments. The packets contained prayers and statements from the various faith traditions, as well as information on forest issues and climate change.
After brief introductions from each attendee and an explanation of the protocol for the week, the attendees had the opportunity to hear a representative from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a science-based nonprofit organization, who emphasized that the scientific community feels that time is running out on the climate change issue and that we need legislation. She said that Senators Kerry, Graham and Lieberman are working on a new bill with other players who have also put forth some legislation and that they are trying to get this done by Earth Day.
Coalition members were asked to emphasize the subject of corporations and to ask legislators how they are going to get corporations to deal with the problems and to stress that there there is rising support on the moral and ethical issue of climate change from the religious community.
Monday, February 22, began with a prayer breakfast, honoring Dr. James Hansen with the 2010 Steward of God's Creation award. An opening prayer was given by NRCCC Board member, Rev. Owen Owens. Other NRCCC members spoke from their faith perspective about Caring for Creation including climate change as a daily holocaust that is killing our neighbors by environmental degradation, by our actions and inactions; we are God’s children, why would we harm children.
Upon receiving his award, Dr. Hansen spoke about the science becoming clearer and the public becoming more skeptical. Dr. Hansen also talked about how the CO2 problem could be solved if we left coal in the ground. He said we need to assess a carbon tax on polluters and the costs should be attached gradually. Cap in trade with offsets are ineffective and results in no real restraints. The proposed congressional bills will not solve the problem. The John Larsen bill is the best with a suggested collection of 15% on shipments coming into our ports. The money collected from this tax would then be redistributed to the public. This action would result in a 30% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020. We also heard from the Earth Day Network. They are planning a massive Earth Day event at the Washington Mall on April 25th. They asked that we do what we can to get people to this event for a good showing.
Some of the NRCCC attendees met with Mr. Carrier to specifically discuss Mountain Top Removal Coal Mining. Mr. Carrier told the coalition that it is the intention of the Whitehouse to discontinue this practice, however they cannot undertake any major effort in that direction without solidifying a new source of jobs for this region.
Dr. James Hansen and a few other NRCCC attendees had a meeting with Senator Kerry. Dr. Hansen proposed a new Stewardship bill and Senator Kerry was very interested. Dr. Hansen agreed to work up a draft of the bill and send it to Kerry for review.
Other NRCCC members met with congressional leadership legislative aides from their regions. The question conveyed across the board was how the science and faith communities can come together to get the right approach to this contentious issue. We assured the legislative aides that as religious communities we are promoting activism on the right solutions to the problem.
On Tuesday, February 23, after a day full of meetings with Congressional leaders, all NRCCC members met at the Whitehouse Council on Environmental Quality. Rabbi Warren Stone talked about our group being the largest religious spectrum in America. He said he would like to see the environmental process move forward and that climate change is a moral and ethical crisis. He mentioned the outcome of the Kerry meeting and also suggested that the Whitehouse convene a conference on Greening America or a youth campaign for Greening America. Brett, from the Council on Environmental Quality, stated that the Whitehouse has hosted an Emerging Leaders Energy Forum for youth.
The discussion turned to coal mining and Ms. Saltzman said that the law permits this venture. She said that the EPA has to go through a scientific analysis, and that the president is doing everything from a science-based perspective. It was suggested that there needs to be a large public conversation about solutions that should include economists, scientists, and moral leaders. The Administration needs to focus on long term solutions and we need these big public discussions.
The deputy for the Council on Environmental Quality concluded the meeting with NRCCC attendees by saying that the climate bill appears to be anti-jobs and that the message is getting diluted. She said that the faith community needs to show we are not anti-jobs. Jim Davidson said that the government should look at the City of Arlington Energy Plan. This is their approach to reducing their footprint by 80% while creating new industries and new jobs.
Wednesday, February 24 began with several NRCCC members attending an early morning appointment that with the Director of the EPA, Lisa Jackson. When we arrived we were informed that Ms. Jackson would not be able to meet with us, however, several other EPA staff did accommodate our visit. We had a chance at this meeting to convey our religious perspectives about climate change and our urgent concern about what is happening with Mountain Top Removal Coal Mining, especially in West Virginia. Fred Krueger, Executive Director of NRCCC, had received a call the night before with concerns over the agitation that is occurring between miners and anti-coal people in WV. NRCCC attendees were surprised when Ms. Jackson did appear for a quick introduction.
Some NRCCC attendees met with staff from the Center for American Progress, to discuss our religious perspectives on climate change and Mountain Top Removal Coal Mining. They were also provided with an update on the Kerry Stewardship bill that had been discussed with him the previous day. NRCCC members wanted to know how religious communities could help the Center for American Progress get the message out about these issues. This was a good meeting with assurances given by this organization that they would assist us in any way they could to ensure the climate change issue remains at the forefront of the political spectrum.