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Praying in Opposition to Fracked Gas Pipelines

By chris

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline met more opposition last week. This time in the form of a prayer gathering by faith leaders outside the Department of Environmental Quality office. DEQ and […]

Praying in Opposition to Fracked Gas Pipelines

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The Atlantic Coast Pipeline met more opposition last week. This time in the form of a prayer gathering by faith leaders outside the Department of Environmental Quality office. DEQ and the Cooper administration are currently considering a 401 water quality permit application that the pipeline must have before moving ahead with construction later this fall.

Susannah Tuttle, Director of NC Interfaith Power & Light, brought word to the assembly of a resolution adopted by the NC Council of Churches Governing Board condemning the construction of pipelines such as the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The Council of Churches, a statewide ecumenical organization spanning eighteen different denominations, counts more than 1.5 million North Carolinians as members of its participating bodies.

Tuttle read from the resolution entitled “Statement Opposing Fracked Gas Pipelines”. The statement read in part, “We resolve that any new investment in energy infrastructure based on the extraction of fossil fuels is morally reprehensible and, as people of faith, we believe it is an abuse of the God-given gift of creation for which we are charged to care.”

Greg Yost, a pipeline opponent from Madison County, also spoke. Yost was on day nine of a two week, water-only fast, sitting each day in front of the DEQ entrance. Yost explained that his presence there is meant to signal that the Cooper administration’s pipeline decision is at root a spiritual issue. “During this period of waiting,” Yost said, “we are physically passive, but spiritually active. We are helping the Governor and [DEQ] Secretary Regan understand that bold leadership on their part will be met with support by North Carolinians across the state, no matter what [pipeline developer] Duke Energy may want.”

The Reverend Mac Legerton, a United Church of Christ minister from Robeson County, facilitated the service. Legerton, who still works daily to help his community recover from the devastation of Hurricane Matthew, opened a time of prayer for victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Legerton brought with him a native flowering plant that he says will now be passed from county to county in eastern North Carolina to be watered by rivers, creeks, and wetlands that the proposed pipeline would cross. The flower will then be returned to DEQ and offered as a living sign of the importance of its duty to see that North Carolina’s water resources are protected.

On Friday, September 15th DEQ announced a decision will be delayed – likely until mid-December – on whether to permit the controversial project.

Without fanfare or press release late yesterday, the state issued a four-page “request for additional information,” part of its duty under the federal Clean Water Act to ensure the natural gas pipeline won’t harm the over 320 rivers and streams and hundreds of acres of wetlands in its path.

We must continue our prayers that this pipeline will be permanently rejected by the strong leaders of North Carolina. Blessed Be!

Toxic Atlantic Coast Pipeline Advances

By chris

One of the final remaining hurdles for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, was cleared Friday after FERC released a positive Environmental Impact Statement. The pipeline, […]

Toxic Atlantic Coast Pipeline Advances

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One of the final remaining hurdles for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, was cleared Friday after FERC released a positive Environmental Impact Statement. The pipeline, if approved, would originate in the heavily fracked Marcellus Shale in West Virginia. The proposed route runs south through eight N.C. counties – Northampton, Halifax, Nash, Wilson, Johnston, Sampson, Cumberland and Robeson. The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality now has to measure the project’s impact on the 453 acres of wetlands and 326 streams and rivers the pipeline crosses in the state. A permitting decision is expected Sept. 18.

Advocates of the pipeline call it a “vitally important infrastructure project that will provide energy for the region’s booming economic growth, new jobs and tax revenues for poor areas, and a cleaner-burning fuel alternative to coal”. (News & Observer, 21 July 2017)  In contrast, opponents of the pipeline say the environmental consequences are much too severe and the project rationale too weak for the DEQ to approve the permit. “It’s a huge impact on the waters and wetlands in Eastern North Carolina, and the way these pipelines are often permitted, these impacts just aren’t considered,” said Geoff Gisler, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.  Aaron Ruby, a Dominion spokesman, calls opposition groups “a vocal minority.” But pipeline opponents were in the majority at the DEQ hearing on Thursday in Rocky Mount. Opponents were in full gear wearing red protest signs and presenting a long list of environmental and ethical concerns.

In November of 2016, both Reverend Doctor Jennifer Copeland and Susannah Tuttle, the Executive Director of NC Council of Churches and the Director of NC Interfaith Power & Light respectively, spoke at a Fayetteville press conference passionately stating their opposition to the construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. A quote from Reverend Copeland’s statement to the press:

“When I know that methane—the element that leaks from natural gas pipelines—is 84 times more detrimental to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, I must make a choice. When I know that fracking—the method used to obtain the natural gas that will flow through this pipeline—causes irreparable damage to drinking water and creates seismic instability, I must make a choice. When I know that pipelines cut through pristine landscapes and across tribal lands, I must make a choice. I can keep doing what I’m doing, for sure, but now I know that what I am doing is an affront to creation, a violation of the gift of creation.”

A quote from Susannah Tuttle’s statement to the press:

“Pipelines connect and we DO so deeply need to be connected to each other. We need pipelines of solidarity that remind us that the hopes and dreams of all the families that are on the path of this pipeline are not so different than the hopes and dreams that we have and of the hopes and dreams of people around the globe on the front lines of climate change.

But this Atlantic Coast Pipeline is not the pipeline that we need. We need pipelines carrying ingenuity to bring us new solutions for getting our electricity from sun & wind, to produce clean energy from heaven instead of dirty energy from hell.

This Atlantic Coast Pipeline is not the pipeline that we need.  We need pipelines to bring us an expanded consciousness to see that we are deeply connected to the entire ecosystem, to the plants and to the animals, to see that what we do to our natural world will touch us too, and soon.”

In Pennsylvania, a group of resolute nuns have used a different tactic to delay the construction of their state’s threat, the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline. This past month, an open-air chapel set up by the Catholic nuns to block construction of the natural gas pipeline was dedicated on a spot directly in the pipeline’s proposed path. The ceremony, hosted by grass-roots opposition group Lancaster Against Pipelines, is called “Stand With the Sisters” and is in support of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, a Catholic order of women in opposition to the pipeline.
The Adorers own the land that the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline would cross. “It’s not about money, it’s about principle. And the nuns have a land ethic that says this Earth is a sanctuary and we regard it as sacred, and we’re going to work to protect it,” Mark Clatterbuck of the Lancaster Against Pipelines group told CNN affiliate WGAL-TV.

TAKE ACTION

The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Division of Water Resources is accepting public comments on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, now through 5 p.m. Aug. 19.

Send written comments to: 401 Permitting, 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C., 27699. Written comments may also be submitted by email to PublicComments@ncdenr.gov. Be sure to include “ACP” in the email’s subject line.

To learn more about the DEQ permitting process, visit deq.nc.gov/news/hot-topics and select Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Photo courtesy of NC Department of Environmental Quality

Governor Cooper Opposes Offshore Oil Drilling

By chris

Governor Roy Cooper has announced his strong opposition to offshore drilling and seismic blasting along North Carolina’s coast. “Our coast is part of our identity,” he said, speaking to the press […]

Governor Cooper Opposes Offshore Oil Drilling

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Governor Roy Cooper has announced his strong opposition to offshore drilling and seismic blasting along North Carolina’s coast. “Our coast is part of our identity,” he said, speaking to the press at Fort Macon State Park near Atlantic Beach.

Randy Sturgill-Oceana, Penny Hooper-NCIPL, Gov.Cooper, Michael Murdoch-Croatan Sierra Club

Penny Hooper, NCIPL Leadership Council Chair, was in the room for the Governor’s press conference. She was among representatives of faith communities, businesses, fishing families, beachgoers, and conservationists that have all joined together to protect our coast from drilling operations even as some political leaders push to let oil companies drill along the Atlantic coast. This is a big step in the effort to protect our coast, and it shows that Governor Cooper has been listening to our coastal communities and to you.

It means a lot when we show appreciation to our elected leaders for doing the right thing. Please take one minute to thank Governor Cooper by calling him at 919-814-2050.

You can let the Governor know you support the unanimously approved NC Council of Churches Governing Board Policy Statement opposing offshore drilling and seismic airgun blasting. Please also let him know that NC Interfaith Power & Light will continue our education and outreach campaigns for congregations across the state to promote clean, renewable energy, and hope-filled climate action responses.

This announcement is not just good news for our coast but for the entire state of North Carolina. The Governor’s decision defends our beaches and unique coastal economy. While this is cause for celebration, we can’t forget that President Trump’s administration will likely come out strongly against this decision. That’s why I’m glad we’re in this together.

I hope you’ll join us in thanking Governor Cooper.

Love God, Live Green, Liberate All!

 

Big Biomass is a Moral Injustice – Stop Enviva

By chris

Over 10,000 individuals and 50 organizations, representing millions of people, supporting communities, public health, climate and forests asked Governor Cooper to revoke the world’s largest wood pellet manufacturer’s flawed air […]

Big Biomass is a Moral Injustice – Stop Enviva

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Over 10,000 individuals and 50 organizations, representing millions of people, supporting communities, public health, climate and forests asked Governor Cooper to revoke the world’s largest wood pellet manufacturer’s flawed air quality permit in Richmond County on Tuesday. The Raleigh press conference included 5 speakers from prominent NC organizations such as Dogwood Alliance, Concerned Citizens of Richmond County, and Clean Air Carolina. Susannah Tuttle of NC Interfaith Power& Light was among the speakers. Her press statement was as follows:

My name is Susannah Tuttle and I serve as the Director of NC Interfaith Power & Light, a program of the NC Council of Churches, representing 18 denominations and nearly one and a half million North Carolinians. We are called to be stewards, but are giving away our resources. Our faith calls upon us to stand with the people of Richmond County in their fight for clean air and healthy community. I hope that Governor Cooper can hear our call to stand with North Carolina communities, and put people above climate polluting industries like Enviva. Faithful Christians believe that God will redeem both people and nature in the new heaven and earth. Knowing that God intends one day to redeem nature should motivate Christians to view and act differently towards the environment. Christians should also be involved as much as possible in the process of redeeming nature here and now on earth as an expression of our own redemption and salvation and the “living out” of our faith. (Phil. 2:12-13; Jas. 2:14-25) In the case of a Christian forester or ecologist, for example, being involved in the restoration of a healthy forest ecosystem is consistent with and honors God’s ultimate plan for redeeming nature. In contrast, being responsible for widespread and complete destruction of a particular forest ecosystem does not seem consistent with nor does it honor God’s plan for redeeming nature.“Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad, let the sea resound and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.” (Psalm 96: 11-13)

The organizations contend that biomass and the wood pellet industry are an environmental injustice. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than Richmond County in rural North Carolina. For the last several years county officials have been working, mostly behind closed doors, with Enviva to gain approval for the construction of a wood pellet manufacturing facility in the town of Hamlet. Residents of the county have repeatedly attempted to deliver public comments to their elected officials at the Richmond County Commission, and have been denied on multiple occasions in a practice that NC Policy Watch reports “clearly violates the first amendment.”

“North Carolina forests do their job to clean the air when they are a living part of our environment”, said Terry Landsdell, Program Director at Clean Air Carolina. “From production to combustion, wood pellet chain emissions are higher than coal, release large quantities of respiratory pollutants and release levels of particulate matter that disproportionately affect residents already overburdened with health impacts like asthma and COPD from air pollution exposure.

Church of the Nativity, Raleigh Awarded $10,000 Grant

By chris

The Episcopal Church recently announced the awarding of 16 grants totaling $123,910 in the second round of grantmaking managed by the Advisory Council for the Stewardship of Creation and approved […]

Church of the Nativity, Raleigh Awarded $10,000 Grant

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The Episcopal Church recently announced the awarding of 16 grants totaling $123,910 in the second round of grantmaking managed by the Advisory Council for the Stewardship of Creation and approved by the Executive Council.

Among the recipients is Nativity, Raleigh, awarded $10,000 toward its work, Becoming the Good Soil, of reducing the serious effects of climate change by engaging in regenerative agriculture through carbon farming, specifically by supplementing land with compost. In simple terms, one goal of carbon farming is to increase soil organic matter (SOM) to help draw carbon out of the atmosphere and sequester it in the ground.

In addition to the implementation of carbon farming to local soil, Nativity will work to help educate individuals and congregations learn more about regenerative agriculture through, among other channels, the development of a white paper to be made available to all churches.

From Nativity:

“Caring for Creation has deep roots in our spiritual lives at Church of the Nativity, and for many years we have supported and been a local voice for North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light (NCIPL) in seeking hopeful solutions for climate change. To avoid severe climate change, reducing emissions from burning fossil fuels will not be enough. Carbon must also be withdrawn from the atmosphere and sequestered into the soil.”

Nativity’s four main goals are 1) educating and encouraging individuals and churches in the Episcopal Diocese of NC to make compost from organic waste, 2) building a statewide organization of the primary stakeholders within government, the private sector, and the farming and academic communities with the goal of launching large scale carbon farming in NC, 3) planning and hosting a NC Carbon Farming Summit meeting that will produce a comprehensive strategy for the project, and 4) publishing a white paper that will summarize the rationale and strategy for the project. 

Join us in congratulating Church of the Nativity and all the hard working individuals seeing this through!

For more information visit http://nativityonline.org/

Now what? Stay engaged and grow the movement

By chris

Trump announced he is pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement. We are living in a time of profound consequence, with the needs of our endangered climate increasing […]

Now what? Stay engaged and grow the movement

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Trump announced he is pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement. We are living in a time of profound consequence, with the needs of our endangered climate increasing and the response to global warming diminishing at the national level.

Our actions now, as climate conscious people of faith, matter more than ever. There are a few things you can do right now to help maximize our collective impact as North Carolina’s statewide multi-faith network committed to addressing climate change as a moral issue:

Engage your interfaith climate conscious citizenship

Consider getting involved in your congregation’s green team or participate in or start a local regional interfaith working group. Imagine if a consequence of the actions that this Administration is making, people of faith rise-up stronger and more organized and committed than ever in the fight to protect our common home. We must grow in numbers and knowledge, as North Carolinians we have a unique leadership role to play on the front lines of climate action in the United States.

Start where you are

Have you had an energy audit of your home or house of worship? Are you learning about incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency upgrades? Are you maximizing the solar potential of your roof? Check out NCIPL’s emPOWERed: A Comprehensive Energy Program for Congregations. Our abilities to think globally while acting locally will be what makes the difference for our own lives today and the future of all lives tomorrow.

Stand up for civilization, interfaith respect, and justice

By standing up for the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, by working together with neighboring faith communities different from our own, by advocating for green jobs and 100% clean energy we are not only fighting climate change we are working for a better, healthier and safer world for everyone.

Support NCIPL and consider signing up as a recurring monthly giver.

No matter what happens in Washington, DC, with your help the interfaith movement in North Carolina can grow wiser and by our actions we can help heal an ailing world.

God and Creation are counting on us!