CoolTexas Interfaith Call for Clean Power and Clean Air

As Texas religious leaders, we call on Texas elected officials and candidates for public office to support policies that will bring Texas clean power and clean air.

Protecting God's children and God's creation from air pollution is a fundamental moral obligation. The following moral principles should guide Texas policymakers:

• Justice for all God's children&emdash;those throughout the world who will suffer from the havoc global warming causes, and our own Texas children who suffer today from smog-related illness and mercury-induced birth defects.
• Justice for future generations who will be adversely affected by the harmful air pollution that is produced today.
• Solidarity with people who live in poverty around the world who are more dangerously affected by air pollution and who do not have the resources to adapt to the realities of global warming.
• Stewardship of the balance of creation, which sustains all life on Earth.

Emission of four key pollutants&emdash;sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, mercury, and carbon dioxide&emdash;are poisoning the Texas environment and sickening our people. Carbon dioxide emissions are contributing to global warming, which most scientists agree threatens the whole world and everything in it. Texas leads the nation in emissions of these four pollutants.

The largest source of carbon dioxide in the U.S. is the electric power industry, accounting for about 40 percent of all U.S. emissions. More than 88 percent of emissions come from older, dirtier coal-fired facilities. In addition, these power plants are a source of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxides, which cause smog, asthma and other breathing-related illnesses, and mercury exposure which causes birth defects.

The modern Texas economy was founded on production of fossil fuels that powered the state, the nation and the world. Texas should continue to power the world, but we should do so with our abundant renewable resources. Policies that would reduce our emissions would also encourage investment in renewable energy, which would in turn benefit the Texas economy.

Texas lawmakers could make huge strides toward clean air and clean power by supporting consistent, effective energy and emissions policies. In particular, we urge support for the following policy initiatives.

To encourage use of renewable energy…

• Congress should include a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) in the federal energy bill. This provision, requiring that a defined minimum percentage of electricity nationally must come from renewable sources, would help reduce toxic emissions and also encourage development of the renewable energy market.
• The Texas Legislature should pass legislation to improve our state's transmission infrastructure for renewable power, so wind energy from West Texas can move quickly and efficiently to big cities where it's needed.

To reduce toxic emissions…

• Texas congressional representatives should support national power plant cleanup legislation.
• The Texas Legislature should enact an enforceable state global warming emissions reduction plan with clear, measurable, short and long-term targets.
• State and federal emissions reduction bills must regulate all four pollutants, including carbon dioxide.

Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddists, and people of many other faiths throughout the world speak with one voice in calling humankind to a renewed relationship with the whole of creation. As Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Bartholomew observed in a recent joint statement:

It is not too late. God's world has incredible healing powers. Within a single generation, we could steer the earth toward our children's future. Let that generation start now, with God's help and blessing.

Let that generation start today in Texas.

Signed,