{"id":11900,"date":"2016-05-05T08:47:34","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T14:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=11900"},"modified":"2016-05-12T16:44:06","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T22:44:06","slug":"faith-leaders-urge-support-for-clean-power-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/05\/faith-leaders-urge-support-for-clean-power-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith leaders urge support for clean-power initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"I-180\"<\/a>

Drenaline<\/p>

Proposed ballot initiative I-180 would require NorthWestern Energy to cut its CO2 emissions in half by 2025.<\/p><\/div>\n

Many denominations advocate for care of God’s creation.<\/p>\n

Our plea urges not only an observance of ethics, but recognition of scientific proof. We agree with the overwhelming majority of climate scientists (97 percent). As climate scientist Katherine Heyhoe, wife of an evangelical pastor, explains: \u201cThe earth is warming and we are causing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is your denomination one of those faiths? Find out by scrolling down at:\u00a0https:\/\/www.mtcares.org\/welcome-to-mtcares\/<\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll see links to:\u00a0 the pope and many Catholics; the 345-member World Council of\u00a0Churches; Rick Warren, author of \u201cA Purpose Driven Life,\u201d and hundreds of other Evangelical leaders; Episcopalians; Jews; Lutherans and their LWF; Methodists;\u00a0 Presbyterians; Southern Baptists; the United Church of Christ; and 10 other individual denominations or churches.<\/p>\n

Faith communities are concerned about eco-justice issues raised by global warming. It disproportionately harms the poor. For example, in Alaska rising seas can erode up to 50 feet a year from areas previously protected by the now melting permafrost, dropping buildings into the rising sea. Similar shoreline erosion drives people from their land in Southeast Asia. It\u2019s beginning to plague low-lying U.S. coasts.<\/p>\n

Much migration from the Middle East has been exacerbated by hotter, dryer conditions driving people from their farms, adding to civil unrest. Expect more refugees from those areas.<\/p>\n

We stopped sacrificing our young when Abraham spared Isaac. Let\u2019s not regress to forfeiting our children\u2019s future because of outdated beliefs about coal-fired electrons. Fossil fuel once served us well. However, we now must recognize that its overuse threatens humans, and other life on earth.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>To help give us hope of reducing this CO2-caused threat, we acknowledge your First\u00a0Amendment right to petition government and its regulated utilities. Say whether you prefer the clean, no-fuel-cost electricity that ballot initiative I-180 encourages.<\/p>\n

The proposed initiative would require NorthWestern Energy to cut its CO2 emissions in half by 2025\u2014five years before the Clean Power Plan. It would require investor-owned utilities to gradually increase the renewable electricity they supply to 80 percent by 2050.<\/p>\n

If you use 1000 kWh of power a month, it would cost you $2.40 a year to fund retraining with enhanced unemployment benefits and pension security for workers displaced by the transition to energy from the sun and wind. However, I-180 would save you money because wind-generated power now sells for 2.5 cents\/kwh and solar for 3.7 cents\/kwh\u2014way below the price of coal-fired electrons.<\/p>\n

During the last century, the number of days each year with temperatures above 90 degrees has tripled in Montana. It\u2019s why the Farmers Union predicts that\u00a024,624 Montana agricultural jobs will be lost by 2050 if climate change continues unabated.<\/p>\n

Another study predicts the loss of 11,000 jobs in sport fishing, skiing and tourism as Montana warms. That\u2019s many more than the 7,000 jobs predicted to be lost if Montana abandons coal-fired generation as Oregon is doing. So, we must stand up for agriculture and other interests while easing the transition of fossil fuel workers away from coal.<\/p>\n

To put I-180 on the November ballot, 24,175 signatures will be needed. If you\u2019re moved to follow your faith leaders, please help gather 10 to 250 signatures. You can do it! To help, please call 406-696-2842, or\u00a0email your name, phone and town address to gather@mtcares.org<\/a>. Thanks. More information is available at https:\/\/www.mtcares.org\/about-i-_\u2026\/draft-of-initiative-text\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This guest editorial was signed by the\u00a0Rev. Joseph Carver, SJ, pastor at Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Missoula, and these co-signers:<\/em>
\n Rev. Marc Stewart, conference minister UCC, Billings<\/em>
\n Rev. Stacey Siebrasse, pastor, First English Evangelical Lutheran Church, Billings<\/em>
\n Rev. Susan Otey, Pastor, Christ United Methodist Church, Great Falls<\/em>
\n Rev. Susan K. DeBree, pastor, Livingston Holbrook and Pine Creek United Methodist Churches<\/em>
\n Rev. Tracy Heilman, pastor, Columbus, Congregational Church<\/em>
\n Rev. Ira Robison, retired minister, United Methodist Church, Missoula<\/em>
\n Rev. Kenneth Crouch, retired minister, United Church of Christ, Billings<\/em>
\n Rev. Mike Mulberry, minister, First Congregational, Billings<\/em>
\n Rev. Steve Gordon, minister, Mayflower Congregational Church, Billings<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many denominations advocate for care of God’s creation. Our plea urges not only an observance of ethics, but recognition of scientific proof. We agree with the overwhelming majority of climate scientists (97 percent). As climate scientist Katherine Heyhoe, wife of an evangelical pastor, explains: \u201cThe earth is warming and we are causing it.\u201d Is your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":11905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3864],"tags":[3758,3754,4290,4289,545],"class_list":["post-11900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-clean-power-plan","tag-climate-change","tag-farmers-union","tag-initiative-i-180","tag-northwestern-energy","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}