TO: Senate Select Committee on Clean Energy

FROM: Peter Bakken, Coordinator for Public Policy  Wisconsin Council of Churches

RE: Clean Energy Jobs Act (SB 450 and AB 649)

DATE: February 11, 2010

My name is Peter Bakken. I’m the Public Policy  Coordinator for the Wisconsin Council of Churches,  an association of thirteen Protestant and Christian  Orthodox denominations in Wisconsin, including the  Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United  Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA),  the United Church of Christ, and the Episcopal  Church. Together, we comprise some 3000 congregations  and almost a million members, and reach every  corner of this state.

I am here to speak in support of the Clean Energy  Jobs Act.

Across Wisconsin, churches and other faith communities  have taken measures to reduce their use of  fossil fuels by conserving energy, installing energyefficient  equipment, and adopting clean renewable  energy sources.

Three Wisconsin churches have received EPA’s  Energy Star Congregations Awards for their achievements  in energy conservation – Saint Andrews Lutheran  church in Wausau, St. Therese Catholic Church  in Appleton, and Madison Christian Community.  Many more Wisconsin congregations have been  featured in local and church media: First Presbyterian  Church (Marshfield), First Unitarian Society (Madison),  Christ the Servant Lutheran Church (Waukesha),  Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Green  Bay, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church (Wauwatosa),  Unitarian Universalist Church West (Brookfield),  Lake Park Lutheran Church (Milwaukee), and Unity  Lutheran Church (Milwaukee) – to name only a few.  They have done so for reasons that are highly relevant  to the legislation we are discussing here today.  One reason is simply to exercise good stewardship  by saving money. Congregations like businesses,  households, and governments have finite budgets,  and better things to spend money on than energy  bills. These congregations have recognized that a  short-term investment to reduce energy consumption  yields long term returns that will enable them to better  minister to their members and serve their neighbors  in need.

In the same way, the Clean Energy Jobs bill can  benefit the individuals, businesses, and communities  of Wisconsin by promoting conservation and energy  efficiency, ultimately lowering overall energy costs  reducing the amount of money we send out of state  by importing coal and oil to meet our energy needs.

A deeper motivation for these communities of  faith, however, is to help secure a cleaner, healthier,  and more just world for present and future generations.  Our reliance on fossil fuels threatens the health  of our most vulnerable neighbors today: neurological  damage from mercury released into the atmosphere  by the burning of coal; asthma from air pollutants;  water poisoned by coal mining waste from mountaintop  removal in Appalachia; toxic wastelands from the  exploitation of Canadian oil sands; and so on. These  are real and present costs that are not accounted for  by our current system of energy pricing.

Further, it is clear that the projected consequences  of climate change will fall most heavily on the poorest  of the global poor, who have done the least to create  the problem and who lack the resources to adapt  to increases in drought, flooding, heat waves, sea  level rise, and infectious diseases.

In short, these communities of faith have taken  steps to reduce their energy consumption because  it is the right thing to do – not only for the sake of  maintaining the beauty, stability, and integrity of the  creation, but also as a matter of justice for the least  powerful and prosperous of our brothers and sisters.

The Clean Energy Jobs bill provides an opportunity  for promoting justice as well as health here at  home, provided we take steps to enable low-income  people in Wisconsin to share in the economic benefits  of a new clean energy economy. We therefore support  the concerns of the Wisconsin Community Action  Program Association that the final bill include measures  to restore and protect the utility public benefits  fund, and to help make new alternative energy and  energy efficiency jobs pathways out of poverty.

Actions by a single congregation to employ  renewable energy sources or conserve energy may  not seem to amount to much, but this brings us to a  final reason why people of faith have found it worthwhile  to do so. As congregations – and households,  communities, and even states – step forward to take  constructive action, they set in motion the beneficial  social contagion of exemplary leadership.

Exemplary leadership informs the imagination by  showing that a better way is possible, that we have  gifts of creativity and innovation that can leave a better  world and a better way of life for our children and  future generations.

Exemplary leadership removes the excuse of  those who insist on waiting until others have taken  the first step, by taking that step oneself. It recognizes  that the actions of a single congregation, or state,  are not taken in a vacuum. They are not sufficient in  themselves, but they are part of a larger process of  change. In taking responsibility for our own impact  on the world, however limited, we influence the actions  and perceptions of others.

The Clean Energy Jobs Act will demonstrate  Wisconsin’s determination to exercise exemplary  leadership and the commitment of American citizens  to take constructive action to solve our economic and  environmental problems. We therefore respectfully  urge this committee to recommend passage of SB 450.

Thank you for your time and your attention.