Linder is with Temple Israel in Omaha. Thelen, S.J., is pastor of St. John's Catholic Church at Creighton University. Bentjen is director of justice and advocacy ministries for ELCA-Nebraska and a senior pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Beatrice. Bennett is a deacon at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Grand Island. Emerson is a rector of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Omaha. Norris, of Omaha, is an Episcopal priest. Rohde is a minister at First Unitarian Church of Omaha.
As people of faith, we believe that the health of God's children is paramount and that we should practice good stewardship of God's creation. With these two core beliefs in mind, we call on U.S. Sens. Ben Nelson and Mike Johanns to oppose S.J. Res. 26, commonly known as “the Dirty Air Act.”
In 1970, a Democratic Congress and a Republican president worked together to pass the Clean Air Act, which has kept the air our children breathe safe ever since.
Unfortunately, between 1992 and 2007, dirty energy sources not covered by the Clean Air Act led to a 16 percent increase in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled that the EPA has the responsibility to regulate such pollution and that a failure to do so constitutes a violation of the Clean Air Act.
To comply with this ruling, the EPA proposed new rules last year to enforce the Clean Air Act and limit air pollution from greenhouse gases. The Dirty Air Act — as written by energy lobbyists, introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and co-sponsored by Sens. Nelson and Johanns — would block those rules from taking effect.
Sen. Nelson says he supports the Dirty Air Act because of the “enormous costs and the detrimental impact on jobs and businesses” that new EPA rules would impose. We disagree and do not believe that job creation and public health are values in opposition to one another.
Since 1990, the Clean Air Act has reduced emissions from six common pollutants by 41 percent. In that same time span, jobs were not lost but created — our nation's gross domestic product grew by 64 percent.
If Sens. Nelson and Johanns focused on creating rather than blocking a new, clean energy economy, our country could benefit from as many as 2 million new jobs. The construction and maintenance of wind turbines would create tens of thousands of jobs in Nebraska alone.
As President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address, “We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy-efficient, which supports clean energy jobs.”
Greenhouse gas regulation also would benefit Nebraska agriculture. According to the Nature Conservancy, if global warming continues unabated, Nebraska will see one of the sharpest temperature increases in the country. More droughts and more insects could cripple our state's farms and ranches.
Some may question why we as faith leaders have chosen to speak out on what is often seen as a political issue. We support laws that benefit public health because all of God's children are created in God's image and should not be neglected. We support job creation because of what the Bible says in Proverbs: “Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but those who are kind to the needy honor him. . . . Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and will be repaid in full.”
For the sake of our planet, our health and our economy, we need less pollution and more jobs. The Dirty Air Act is a step in the wrong direction.
At least 18 major faith groups, 37 environmental and poverty nonprofits, 273 leading entrepreneurs and seven major health organizations publicly oppose it. These groups include the American Lung Association, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the National Council of Churches, the United Methodist Church, the Union for Reform Judaism and executives at Hewlett Packard and Cisco Systems.
It is our prayer that Nebraska's elected senators, people of faith themselves, will hear the voice of their people and join us in opposing the Dirty Air Act.
This Midlands Voices essay reflects the views of the writers and not necessarily the editorial position of The World-Herald.
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