Faith Leaders Needed to Sign Letter Calling on Congress to Support Climate and Clean Energy Infrastructure

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Interfaith Power & Light (at the national level) is asking faith leaders around the country (including New Mexico) to add their name to this sign on letter to Congress calling for critical investments in climate and clean energy as we rebuild our economy.

Click Here to Add Your Name

The deadline is June 9th.

Here is the text of the letter

Dear Members of Congress,

As leaders from many diverse faith traditions, we are united in our call for a bold economic recovery and infrastructure package that creates family and community sustaining jobs while caring for our climate and our neighbors. It is the moral responsibility of our nation, and our sacred task as people of faith, to protect our ecosystems, work for environmental justice and public health, and address the climate crisis. 

We urge you to support historic levels of investment that will safeguard Creation, address the impacts of climate change and pollution from fossil fuel extraction and related industries, and fulfill our moral obligation to leave a habitable world for future generations. Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and low-income communities have been hit the hardest by the triple health, economic, and environmental crises we face. The needs of these communities must be at the center of any infrastructure package.

As we move from COVID relief to economic recovery, this moment offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in the clean energy future while addressing the injustices of the past. We can achieve that by:

  • Expanding clean, renewable energy and modernizing our electric grid

We can accelerate the transition to clean energy by passing a national Clean Energy Standard that achieves 100% renewable, pollution free electricity by 2035, while also expanding investments in wind and solar power. 

  • Electrify transportation and expand public transit

Now is the time to invest in American-made electric vehicles, build charging stations across the country, and make sure they are affordable to all. We can also connect our communities and reduce pollution by electrifying and expanding public transit. 

  • Clean water infrastructure for all communities

Too many communities, especially in low-income urban neighborhoods and in Indigenous communities, don’t have access to clean water. We must invest in lead pipe remediation, as well as programs that provide clean water to rural communities.

  • Invest with justice

BIPOC and low-income communities have been harmed the most by both this pandemic and our centuries of investment in fossil fuel infrastructure. Our understanding of justice demands that these communities must be at the center of our investments going forward. Specifically, we call for these communities, forced to bear an unequal burden of pollution and pandemic, to receive at least 40% of the investments. Additionally, to ensure a just transition, we must support dislocated workers and investment in communities historically dependent on fossil fuels.

Sincerely,

So much depends upon the sacred act of voting!

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At NM IPL there are several prongs to our work. Many of you are involved in one or more of these prongs.

*Education and Inspiration or prayer, meditation and rituals

*Hands on actions for energy efficiency, solar installation, food production, tree planting, supporting local agriculture

*Public policy Advocacy

Regarding the third prong we are so grateful for more and more people of faith and or conscience stepping up in so many ways. Here are a few.
  • Meetings this month with Congressional delegates as part of national IPL effort to discuss the For the People Act, HR1 and S1 getting “dark money” out of voting and supporting voting rights. We also addressed Building Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructures with the American Jobs Plan and the THRIVE Act. NM IPL folks from Gallup, Jemez, Carlsbad, and Albuquerque attended zoom meetings with leaders.
  • Thank you to a number of folks who have signed up to speak in support of EPA methane rules at a federal online EPA hearing!! We have folks from Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, and Carlsbad.
  • The Policy Advocacy Group meets monthly. The next meeting is June 2 at 9 am on zoom. Everyone is invited to be on the list to get notes and invitations for actions or attend the meetings. Just send a note to joan@nm-ipl.org.

Finally, there is a special election in Congressional District 1 now until June 1. VOTING IS A SACRED ACT. If you are in this district, or have friends and family in this district, PLEASE VOTE for the candidate of your choice because voting is a sacred responsibility for the Common Good, our neighbors and Sacred Creation!!!

Here is VOTING INFO where you can find voting locations and times:

 

Much peace and gratefulness,
Joan Brown,osf, Executive Director

 

Congress Must Act to Pass Infrastructure Legislation With Climate and Clean Energy Investments

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(Reprinted from the National IPL Blog)

By Tiffany Hartung, Field Director

It is the moral responsibility of our nation, and our sacred task as people of faith, to care for our neighbors, our common home, and protect our children’s future. We must work for environmental justice and public health while addressing the climate crisis.

From historic wildfires to record-breaking extreme weather, climate change is devastating our health and destroying our environment. Links between pollution and the pandemic have put low wealth communities and communities of color at far greater health risks than other communities. COVID-19 has also exposed hidden health care disparities, environmental injustices, and economic inequities in the United States.

These competing crises have ignited an urgent call to action to address climate change and environmental injustice together. We need Congress to pass recovery and infrastructure legislation that includes critical investments in environmental justice communities as we seek to rebuild the economy in a resilient, sustainable, and equitable way.

Congress is putting together economic recovery and infrastructure legislation this spring and summer that gives us a historic opportunity to invest in safeguarding Creation; to address the harms of climate change and pollution caused by fossil fuel extraction and related industries; and to fulfill our moral obligation to leave a thriving world for future generations.

Rebuilding America will take a transformational investment plan that delivers jobs, justice, and clean energy to communities across the country and curbs the carbon pollution that is driving the climate crisis. We need Congress to approve these investments to create new jobs and a just, equitable, and sustainable economy.

If you haven’t already, urge your members of Congress to support a plan that truly tackles climate change.

If you are a faith leader or leader of a religious community, please add your name to this faith leaders’ letter to Congress.

IPL President Rev. Susan Hendershot wrote in a recent op-ed to Sojourners, “In many places, it is not possible to support a family with the jobs that are available. This is a spiritual issue; one that the American Jobs Plan has the opportunity to address by creating new jobs that will renew people’s hope as well as the life of our planet. What we need today is a visionary investment in new, sustainable, and equitable infrastructure that prioritizes clean energy jobs and renewable energy.”

This is an extraordinary, historic opportunity to invest in the future with a safer climate, a fairer, more inclusive economy, and modern clean energy infrastructure that improves our daily lives.