GreenFaith Testimony for Stronger Fuel Efficiency Standards
GreenFaith's Executive Director Fletcher Harper delivered the following testimony in support of the proposed new fuel efficiency standards at a Philadelphia hearing of the Environmental Protection Agency on Jan. 19.
Good afternoon. I am the Rev. Fletcher Harper, Executive Director of GreenFaith, a national interfaith environmental coalition. GreenFaith works with over 5,000 faith-based groups nationwide to educate, equip and mobilize them to offer leadership to protect the environment. I am here today to offer GreenFaith’s unequivocal support for the fuel efficiency standards that are the subject of this hearing.
The world’s great religions – Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and others – affirm three core values or beliefs that are consistent with the intent and impact of the proposed standards.
First, these traditions teach that the Earth reveals the existence of its Creator. Therefore, those actions which protect or preserve a healthy environment are morally and religiously significant because they show respect to the Creator and make it possible for others to appreciate the Creator’s majesty, beauty and love. Conversely, actions that degrade or destroy Creation are wrong because they show disrespect to the Creator while depriving many of the chance to enjoy the beauty of God’s Earth. By analogy, very few people would claim that defacing the work of a master painter would be a way of showing respect to that artist. This religious perspective is in certain ways echoed in society’s recognition that there are aesthetic and emotional values inherent in the environment, and that regulations and policies must take these non-financial values into account. By reducing air pollution substantially, the proposed standards are deeply consistent with this first religious value.
Second, religions teach that society owes a particular duty of care to its most vulnerable members. Again, the proposed standards supports this value. Others have testified about the harm to human heath caused by tailpipe emissions. GreenFaith is particularly aware of the disproportionate impacts of air pollution on Environmental Justice communities, where rates of asthma and respiratory illness are far higher than in wealthier, whiter communities. The proposed standards would substantially decrease the particulate matter that contributes to these negative health impacts – an outcome clearly consistent with religious values. In addition, the proposed standards would contribute to lessening our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions as part of the effort to fight climate change. Reducing the pace and level of climate change will again decrease negative health impacts on vulnerable communities domestically and globally – by reducing heat-related illness and death, slowing the spread of infectious diseases, decreasing damage due to severe weather events, and more. Clearly, these are morally favorable outcomes.
Third – religions teach that human beings are called to protect, care for and steward an Earth which, in the end, does not belong fully to us. Whether religions see ownership as residing in whole or in part with the Divine, with future generations, or with the wider community of life – the point is clear. We are not free to use the Earth’s resources solely for our own narrowly defined well-being – because ultimately the Earth does not belong to us. Rather than interpreting this as a rejection of the notion of private property, we prefer to recognize that all human societies develop some form of ownership of the Earth’s resources – whether familial, clan-based, governmental, or private. The issue is not whether or not we will develop these systems of human ownership – we always have and always will. The issue is whether the ownership systems we develop are consistent with our obligation to steward the Earth’s resources consistent with the Earth’s inalienable purpose of supporting life with which it was endowed by its Creator. Once again, the proposed standards – by reducing pollution, fighting climate change, and protecting human and ecological health - represent an important step in making this ethic of stewardship real.
In closing, let me repeat that the proposed standards are deeply consistent with teachings from the world’s faith communities. Thank you for the opportunity to testify in their support.
