I was heartened by the president’s State of the Union address in January when he acknowledged Americans are “addicted” to fossil fuels. With the resignation this month of Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the president has an opportunity to make a positive impact on that addiction and a hopeful difference for God’s creation.
The president is now on record supporting alternative fuels. He should choose someone to replace Norton who will walk the president’s talk. Increased drilling for oil and gas on our public lands or near our national parks feeds our national addiction. It does not curb it.
Addictions require intervention. If the president is serious, then the new Interior secretary should team with the secretaries of Energy, Treasury and Transportation in developing a comprehensive plan – an intervention on our lifestyles and public policies – to support reduced energy use. Yet, our strategy seems to be to open more Western lands to oil drilling with less oversight. This is hardly an intervention strategy.
We need a national energy policy that promotes renewable energy – not oil shale or more deep-well drilling on some of the most beautiful country in our nation.
We need to see a national tax policy that rewards alternative fuel producers and not makers of gas-guzzling Hummers.
We need an energy policy that makes electricity bills from wind power cheaper than power from fossil fuel plants.
People of faith find much of their passion for the environment in the Bible. Psalm 24 tells us, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.” And Leviticus (Chapter 25) reminds us we do not own the land in perpetuity. Instead, we are temporary “tenants” on God’s lands, which we hold in partnership with all creatures and future generations.
For years now, many in the faith community, including the National Council of Churches, have voiced strong opposition to the degradation of our environment and our country’s over-consumption of the world’s energy resources. Now it seems that, despite the president’s words in January, we are more committed to drilling for oil and increasing our use of energy than we are to taking the necessary steps to drastically and decisively alter this alarming reality. Even skyrocketing gasoline prices have not significantly deterred our consumption of oil – proving perhaps that “addiction” is the right word.
On March 21, more than 70 faith leaders signed a letter calling for our elected officials, land managers and citizens to make restoration, responsible stewardship, and renewal of our public lands a top priority as well as reduce oil and gas drilling on these national treasures. (See www.ncccusa.org.)
The recent surge in energy development on public lands is of special concern since oil and gas drilling – with its required network of drill pads, pipelines and roads – can present a major threat to the health of public lands and wild places. Erosion, noise, air and water pollution, soil contamination, and destruction of wildlife habitat can upset the harmony of natural systems, disrupt the solitude and intrinsic character of a place, harm the health and livelihood of nearby communities, and prevent other uses of the land such as recreation and grazing.
We have a moral obligation to protect the lands God has entrusted to us. Good stewardship of the land is a responsibility shared by all citizens and leaders. It may be true that our “addiction” to fossil fuels cannot be dealt with by going “cold turkey.” But we have to start somewhere.
A good start would be to appoint an Interior secretary who is committed to enacting policies that stop enabling our over-consumption.
The Senate should closely scrutinize the president’s nominee – Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne – to ensure that he will be up to the task of intervention.
The Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar is general secretary of the National Council of Churches.
