February 2, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Religious leaders representing the National Council of Churches USA and five of its member denominations have joined together to ask members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to reject the proposed "Clear Skies Act" of 2005. In testimony that was submitted this morning during a full committee hearing today, religious leaders from the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church and NCC, testified against the bill because it fails to implement policies needed to clean up our the nation's air and excludes provisions to address the threat of global warming.

"[W]e believe the legislation delays the critical action necessary to clean up our nation's air and fails altogether to address the real and present threat of global warming. We urge this committee to adopt amendments that would strengthen standards, speed up implementation, and control emissions of carbon dioxide," says the testimony.

In addition, the testimony states that "clean air is a basic right and necessity for all life" and that "we have too often abandoned (our) sacred responsibility . . . leaving a legacy of pollution that threatens the health of communities and the very future of our planet." Citing the harm air pollution can cause humans, including premature deaths, asthmas attacks, and lost productivity, the religious leaders urged Senators to enact strict emission controls to clean the air.

"We believe that our elected officials have a moral duty to address air pollution," says John S. Hill, Director of Economic and Environmental Justice at the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society. "All too often, the most vulnerable in our society, including the elderly, the poor, children, and pregnant women pay the price suffer because of our failure to act."

"Over the past several years we have educated and mobilized people of faith on the issue of air pollution," says Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell, NCC's Associate General Secretary for Justice and Advocacy. "Within the last year we have encouraged our 100,000 congregations across the country to take action to protect God's gift of air and have provided them with theological statements, worship materials, study guides and prayers. The call now is to our elected officials to take action."

National Council of Churches