NM-IPL Supports Efforts Against Line 3 Replacement Pipeline

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June 5, 2021

Blessings in Solidarity Water Protectors for our Earth:

New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, hundreds of faith communities, and thousands of people of faith and conscience, in the Land of Enchantment stand in solidarity with you to stop the building of the Line 3 replacement pipeline.  We send prayers and continue to pray with you these days and into the future. However, our prayers also motivate us to sacred action with you and in our own state, which is one of the largest producers of oil and gas in the Permian Basin in South East New Mexico and in the San Juan Basin in the Northwest of our state.

We have been working alongside frontline communities, including many of our Native American brothers and sisters for many years to address extractivism, legacy clean up, water, and related economic transition and health concerns in our state, which suffers with many sacrifice zones.

All of our diverse spiritual traditions hold water as sacred and as life. The pipeline is destroying so much, which cannot be recovered.  We stand at a moral juncture facing a different future with oil and gas extraction. For too long pollution has compromised the lifeways of us all and especially our Native American brothers and sisters in Minnesota and beyond.

The days of tars sands are over, we must stand with you to protect the treaties, to protect sister water, and to protect the climate in order to sustain life to all on this is earth and nation.  As written to President Biden on May 26, this is a battle for the Soul of Our Nation. We rise with you for the treaties, for climate and for water.

We rise together for one another and all creation, to stand for justice and dignity for our sacred creation and humanity—against a backdrop of long years and many lifetimes of colonial terror, injustice, and broken trust. We join ourselves with all who are here to stop the pipeline, knowing that in standing united we are powerful enough to change the tide of greed, waste, and profit, which can no longer govern the hearts of those who govern us. We believe that the spiritual foundations of our paths empower us for this hard work.

NM IPL believes that we have an ethical, moral and spiritual responsibility to address this injustice from spiritual roots to make alive spiritual activism. President Biden is a devote Catholic and a spiritual man and we call upon him from his spiritual foundations and the Catholic Social teachings to not ignore the cry to stop the pipeline.

Thank you for inviting us to join in this gathering of resistance to stand for life and for all you have done to protect all that is sacred for all generations of life here now and to come.

With peace, good and prayers of solidarity,

With peace, good and prayers of solidarity,

Sr. Joan Brown,osf, Executive Director, NM IPL

Emily Syal, staff team

Carlos Navarro, staff team

Terry Sloan, Board member, Catholic, Navajo/Hopi

Stephen Picha, Board member, Presbyterian, Catholic

Ann McCartney, Board member, Spiritual

Ruth Striegel, Board member, United Church of Christ

Judy Smith, Board member, Jewish

Tom Stark, Board member, Unitarian Universalist

Necip Orhan, Board member, Muslim

Arcelia Isais-Gastelum, Board member, Catholic Young Adult

Charlotte Smith, Board member, Bahai

Larry Rasmussen, Author, Advisor

Rev. Anita Amstutz, Mennonite, Advisor

Sr. Rose Marie Cecchinni, mm, Advisor, Office of Life Justice Peace and Creation Stewardship, Gallup Catholic Diocese

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