50,000 Pro-Life Evangelicals in Texas Calling 100% Clean Electricity by 2030

Events Held in Abilene and Dallas

Nearly 50,000 pro-life Christians in Texas are calling for Gov. Abbott to create a plan for the state to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2030, as part of the Pro-Life Clean Energy Campaign of the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN).

“Texas is a top generator of wind energy, but the state’s clean energy potential is so much greater; Texas could lead the nation and become America’s clean energy powerhouse,” said the Rev. Mitch Hescox, President/CEO EEN.  “Cleaning up our air will protect the unborn from harmful pollution and make it easier to breathe for the 638,000 children in Texas who have asthma.  It’s the right thing to do.”

Here is what pro-life Christians in Texas are fighting for as part of the Pro-Life Clean Energy Campaign:

  • Free our children from pollution all across America with 100% clean electricity from renewable resources by 2030.
  • Defend our freedom to create our own electricity from wind & sunshine, without fees championed by monopolistic utilities to make it unaffordable and out of reach.
  • Free our communities from regulations that prevent us from joining together to create our own clean electricity and sell what we don’t need to others.
  • Free businesses from such regulations so that they, too, can create and sell clean electricity.

Rev. Hescox will be at Abilene Christian University giving presentations and speaking at chapel this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  On Friday Rev. Hescox will be at Earth Day Dallas (click here).

Over 24,000 Pro-Life Christians in Texas Are Calling for 100% Clean Electricity by 2030

Asking Gov. Abbott and Presidential Candidates to Lead the Way

Pollution harms the unborn, causing damage that last’s a lifetime.  Dirty air and water has serious consequences for the health of our children.

This is why pro-life Christians must lead the charge on clean energy, and why the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN) is organizing half a million pro-life Christians across the country to participate in EEN’s Pro-Life Clean Energy Campaign (sign the petition).  In just a few weeks 24,642 pro-life Christians in Texas have already joined, calling for 100% clean electricity by 2030.  According to a just released poll by the University of Texas they are in good company:  86% of Americans support action for energy security.

“It is time to stop poisoning the womb and our environment and create a cleaner, brighter future for our children, free from pollution,” said the Rev. Mitch Hescox, President/CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network.  “Over 638,000 kids in Texas have asthma, and pollution makes it hard for them to breath.  That’s not right,” said Rev. Hescox.

“The Holy Bible testifies to God’s mandate on all Believers to care for Creation. Industrial pollution is clearly harmful to the environment and threatens to harm human lives. That is why Christians in Texas are asking policy makers to make creation care a priority,” said Rev. Dr. Daniel Flores, The Hispanic Wesleyan Society, Fort Worth, TX.

We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform how we create electricity for our homes and businesses – not with the old and outdated approaches from the past, like coal-burning power plants run by state-sanctioned monopolies – but with clean, new, innovative approaches like those powered by wind and by sunshine, such as rooftop solar, owned by families and individuals.

Texas can lead the way, leaving in the past that it is the nation’s biggest polluter by becoming the biggest winner in clean energy.  Texas is blessed with the largest abundance in clean energy potential in the country (learn more about what’s possible in Texas).  The state is already the biggest producer of wind generated electricity; indeed, on February 18 Texas a new record for wind generation, producing over 14,000 MW of electricity supplying over 45% of the state’s needs.

The Pro-Life Clean Energy Campaign is asking Gov. Abbott and the presidential candidates  to do what’s right, stand up to utility monopolies protecting their profits at our expense, and defend the right of families, individuals, communities, and businesses to help set us free from pollution by creating our own clean electricity and selling what we don’t need to others.

Here is what half a million pro-life Christians will be  fighting for, and what we’re asking from our elected officials like Gov. Abbott and the presidential candidates:

  • Free our children from pollution all across America with 100% clean electricity from renewable resources by 2030.
  • Defend our freedom to create our own electricity from wind & sunshine, without fees championed by monopolistic utilities to make it unaffordable and out of reach.
  • Free our communities from regulations that prevent us from joining together to create our own clean electricity and sell what we don’t need to others.
  • Free businesses from such regulations so that they, too, can create and sell clean electricity.

“Our children, both the unborn and born, deserve the right to an abundant life unhindered by pollutants that threaten their hearts, lungs, and brains.  We have a biblical responsibility to defend our children and at the same time empower our markets for energy freedom,” said Hescox.

Senate Votes for Dirty Water

A Statement by the Rev. Mitch Hescox
President/CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network

Today the Senate narrowly approved S.J. Res. 22, a “Resolution of Disapproval” introduced by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) that would invalidate a regulation to help make our water cleaner and bar the country from taking the approach of this regulation ever again – a rash and foolish course of action.  This regulation by the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been years in the making and is designed to protect the waters of the U.S., or WOTUS; it will help our country attain nearly the level of water purity achieved during the Reagan years, so that we can then build upon this success for even greater water purity and a righteous water supply.

Is our water safe?  Increasingly the answer is no.  This regulation is designed to get us back on track.

For Christians called by Jesus to love others and protect the vulnerable, and for others of good will, dirty water is unacceptable and presents an opportunity to make a difference.  We must work for a righteous water supply.  So should our Senators.  But this vote takes us on the wrong direction.

Bottom line: this isn’t stewardship.  Now it will be up to President Obama to veto this terrible resolution.

We are grateful for all the Senators who voted the right way, including Senators Collins (R-ME), McCaskill (D-MO), and Casey (D-PA).

I will take a personal point of privilege to offer additional thanks and praise to my home state Senator, Bob Casey.  I thank God for his leadership in protecting God’s creation.

Smog Standard An Improvement That Needs Improving

Last Thursday’s release by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of their final version of a regulation updating the standard for ground-level ozone, a major cause of smog, is an improvement over the standard set in 2008 during the Bush Administration.  The rule or regulation released today, known as the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards, sets the new standard at 70ppb.  While better than the old 2008 standard of 75ppb, 70ppb barely meets the recommended range by the EPA’s own Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, which  stated the following:

the recommended lower bound of 60 ppb would certainly offer more public health protection than levels of 70 ppb or 65 ppb and would provide an adequate margin of safety. Thus, our policy advice is to set the level of the standard lower than 70 ppb within a range down to 60 ppb, taking into account your judgment regarding the desired margin of safety to protect public health, and taking into account that lower levels will provide incrementally greater margins of safety.

For pro-life Christians, 70ppb is an improvement that needs improving.  Lower levels will provide greater margins of safety.

We must do better.

Evangelicals Support President Obama’s EPA Climate Change Regulation

PRESS RELEASE

July 30, 2015

Over 170 senior evangelical leaders from across the country sent President Obama a letter offering their support for his leadership on climate change, specifically for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) carbon pollution regulation known as the Clean Power Plan (CPP) to be released next week.  They joined nearly 230,000 pro-life Christians who sent supportive messages to the EPA in favor of the regulation.

In agreement with Pope Francis, the evangelical leaders see addressing climate change as an act of Christian love.  Their letter, dated July 30, states:

We see overcoming the climate challenge as one of the great moral opportunities of our time, a chance to fulfill the Great Commandments to love God, our neighbors, and ourselves.  It is God’s love that calls all of us to take on this challenge.  That is why we write to offer our support and encouragement for your efforts to overcome the climate challenge.

Evangelicals are often seen as in opposition to President Obama.  “Though we have our differences, the climate challenge is too important for us not to work together to defend our children and all of God’s children around the world,” said the Rev. Mitch Hescox, President/CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN).  “We know addressing climate change will help create a clean energy future with clean air, pure water, and good jobs.”

Other key parts of the evangelical community are also supporting President Obama and the EPA.

“Hispanic evangelicals recognize the importance of being good stewards of creation and these actions from the administration resonate with such a belief,” said the Rev. Dr. Emilio Marrero, Chair of EEN’s Board and Vice President of Esperanza, one of the leading hispanic Christian organizations in the country.  Polls have consistently shown that a majority of hispanics are concerned about climate change, and a recent one showed that 58% considered climate action an important issue for the 2016 presidential election.

Young evangelicals are also supporting President Obama and the EPA. “Our generation has only known a warming world,” said Rachel Lamb of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (Y.E.C.A.).  “We’re grateful for President Obama’s leadership on climate change, and we hope other political leaders will work to protect our future and the poor by addressing the climate crisis.”

In his Encyclical on climate change, Laudato Si’, Pope Francis states that “love moves us to devise larger strategies to halt environmental degradation and to encourage a ‘culture of care’ which permeates all of society” (para. 231).

“We couldn’t agree more,” said Rev. Hescox.  “We see the Clean Power Plan as one of the ‘larger strategies to halt environmental degradation’ that Pope Francis talks about.”

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