By Ellie Whitney
Congregational Resolution Supports Carbon Fee and Dividend Legislation
Princeton, Sunday June 3. 2012 n The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton (UUCP) voted as a congregation to support the Save Our Climate Act, a pro-renewable energy piece of legislation now in Congress. The Act, H.R. 3242, would assess carbon-based fees to companies that profit from fuels entering the U.S. economy from mines, wellheads, and tankers and would return the proceeds to American households to spare them financial stress. Supporters of the Act believe that over time, because the carbon fees increase from year to year, renewable energy and energy efficiency will become more economically competitive, increasingly attracting consumers and investors.
The congregation has a history of environmental ministry. Recently, UUCP completed a denominational certification process to become an environmentally sustainable congregation, or what’s called a Green Sanctuary in its faith. This multi-year, multifaceted process involved everything from installing solar panels on the roof of the sanctuary to making recycling easier and more visible. Ecological themes run through the Children’s Religious Education program, and the congregation makes great use of its national Association’s seventh religious principle: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part, in worship and mission.
The resolution, which passed with a wide majority, notes the disproportionately negative effects of climate change on the poor, vulnerable ecosystems and future generations as they are unable to escape the resulting environmental catastrophes. Defenseless people worldwide are losing their homes, their livelihoods, and their lives to droughts, famines, storms, and other disasters caused by climate change, and the damage is intensifying.
The Save Our Climate Act was proposed to the U.S. House of Representatives last year by Congressman Pete Stark of California. So far it has attracted 16 cosponsors with Princeton’s Rush Holt first among them. They are responding to an urgent need, as according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the world is far behind on delivering the low-carbon energy it needs. “There is still time to act, but the window of opportunity is closing,” according to the IEA, and without prompt action within a few years, catastrophic climate change will become unstoppable.
The text of the resolution passed by the congregation on June 3, 2012, follows. For more information on the general subject, refer to: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=clean-energy-lags-put-world-on-pace-for-6-degrees-celsius-of-global-warming.
Resolution in Support of the Save Our Climate Act
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton
June 3, 2012
Whereas fossil fuel use by human societies is escalating and disrupting the global climate; and
Whereas fossil fuel use also inflicts costs on society that are considerably higher than their market prices; and
Whereas these costs are inflicted disproportionately on the poor, on vulnerable ecosystems, and on future generations; and
Whereas the Save Our Climate Act, H.R. 3242, now before the U.S. House of Representatives presents a direct, transparent, efficient and fair method of slowing, halting, and reversing these trends; and
Whereas the provisions of this Act will exert many beneficial effects upon the economic well-being of all U.S. citizens;
We now therefore resolve, as a Congregation, to actively support the Save Our Climate Act, H.R. 3242 and any subsequent bill that embodies the same principles and to urge all of New Jersey’s Members of Congress to do the same.
