To Till and to Tend

As the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico continues to destroy vast areas of fragile natural habitat, decimate the fishing and tourist industries, and wreak havoc on the local and national economy, the Jewish people too are entering a period of mourning. Over the next three weeks we will think about the ninth day of the month of Av, also known as Tisha B’Av, the day Jews mourn the destruction of the ancient Temples in Jerusalem. On that day, Jews have traditionally sung a mournful melody from the Book of Lamentations – in Hebrew named Eicha, for its opening word: “How lonely … sits the city, once full of life, now desolate.” In this week’s blog, we will be speaking of the destruction that is happening right now to God’s Creation in the Gulf of Mexico and relate it to the destruction of the Temples centuries ago. Over the next few weeks we will also discuss our collective responsibility as Jews towards Creation and promote action items to help those who have been hurt by the unfolding disaster and prevent it from happening again. Please read the very well written Op-Ed on the three weeks and Tisha B’Av in the Washington Post by our friend and colleague, Executive Director of Canfei Nesharim, Evonne Marzouk.

As we consider Tisha B’Av and the three weeks, leaders of the Jewish community are taking action on the destruction in the Gulf. Rabbi Julie Schonfeld of the Rabbinical Assembly and Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of the Reform Movement are representing COEJL’s Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign on an interfaith tour of the Gulf next week. The Campaign provides activists a way to pledge their own personal responsibility to consider the consequences of all our actions as it relates to energy and its impact on the environment. Stay tuned for an announcement about a conference call to discuss their experiences there and what we as the broader Jewish community can do to help the situation. Join us and other Jewish leaders around the world who have made the pledge to do something about it today. Sign the Covenant Campaign Pledge now: www.coejl.org/covenant

News Summary

U.S. Senate News
Last week the Democratic Caucus met to plot the course for pushing through energy policy. Betting that the Gulf disaster will energize public support, they hoped to make it difficult for Republicans and moderate Democrats to block legislation before midterm elections. While various plans are still being considered, the principle of “polluters pay” promises to make a winning comprehensive bill. Last week COEJL wrote senators urging they pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation this year and avoid energy-only legislation that would not sufficiently address the issues that will affect our world environmentally, economically and politically for generations. This week, our leaders continued the outreach on a higher level by placing individual calls to their senators in key states to share their point of view.

News from the Oval Office
The President’s moratorium on deep water drilling was shot down in Federal court last week.  Dow Jones News Service reported that U.S. District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman, the judge responsible for the decision, sold his holdings in Exxon Mobile on June 22, just before hearing the moratorium case that same day. According to the federal courts administration, Judge Feldman also previously owned stocks in at least 17 oil and gas companies, which begs the question, “should Judge Feldman have recused himself from this and other related litigation?” Either way, the Obama administration has said it will file an appeal and Ken Salazar announced that a tougher moratorium measure may be in the works for later this week.  Obama met with a bipartisan group of senators on Tuesday to talk about moving energy and climate legislation. It seems as though compromise was in the air on the price of pollution and a scaled back approach may be in the works.  Congress will also continue several hearings on expansive energy legislation, oil regulation, and financial requirements for drillers. The current $75 million cap for environmental liability from an oil spill will also be debated. Some lawmakers have called for a $10 billion cap, while others have said companies should face no cap at all for damages caused.

Red Sea Oil Spill Affects Israel’s Coast
The leak, which Egyptian government spokesman Magdy Rady described as “limited,” was caused by a spill from an offshore platform in Jebel al-Zayt, north of the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada. Israelis are concerned about environmental impacts on one of the world’s most renowned coral reef regions, the economic effects on tourism, and the appearance of a news cover-up.

World’s Most Financially Influential Countries Reaffirm Commitment to Phase Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies
At the G20 Toronto Summit this week, leaders from the world’s most financially influential countries reaffirmed their commitment to phasing out fossil fuel subsidies. It is expected that this will encourage the conservation of energy, improve energy security, reduce economically inefficient burdens on budgets, and provide a down-payment on our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is an important step along the way but we’ll need to watch what it actually means in terms of implementation and domestic legislation in the U.S. We are also going to watch what happens at the next big UN summit in Cancun in November. COEJL joined with other Jewish organizations last year urging the U.S. and other world leaders to act courageously at the Copenhagen conference and protect us from the devastation of climate change.

World Zionist Congress Passes GZA resolutions. COEJL congratulates the recent success by the Green Zionist Alliance to pass four energy-related resolutions at the World Zionist Congress focused on saving water and energy, abating climate change, including environmental awareness when educating new immigrants, and food justice.

Community Features

Calling Energy Activists and Communities – Let us know what you’re doing so we can feature you! Community Relations Councils, partner organizations, and individual activists now have an opportunity to feature their environmental and energy work through COEJL’s Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign. We would love to share what you are doing with the broader Jewish community through our weekly “COEJL In Contact” newsletter (Email COEJL Program Director, David Marks at: dmarks@coejl.org), our blog “To Till and to Tend,” and our new COEJL Talks fan page on Facebook®. We look forward to working with you to build our shared network of energy activists.

COEJL Green Tip: Happy Independence Day!

This Sunday is the 4th of July and for many of us that means bar-b-ques. How about putting some green variety on the grill that’s cooler not only for your digestive system but also for the planet? Did you know that the raising and transporting of livestock for food causes more emissions than all of the world’s cars, trains, planes, and boats put together? According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), worldwide livestock farming generates more of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions than the total of all cars, trains, planes and boats combined.  Check out the Sierra Club’s ideas for making Independence Day fun and tasty as well as healthy.

June 24th, 2010

President Obama and a New Direction for the U.S.

In President Obama’s first speech from the Oval Office of the White House on the evening of Tuesday, June 15th, 2010, he emphasized the importance of a new direction for the United States on developing energy policy for a clean-energy economy. He strongly voiced the need for a national imperative to seize this moment of environmental tragedy with the Gulf oil spill and turn it into an opportunity for action.  (Read the full speech here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-nation-bp-oil-spill)

His speech was inspiring and COEJL looks forward to working with the administration and other Jewish and non-Jewish environmental organizations in mobilizing our constituents to live more efficiently, paving the way to a more sustainable society. Putting a price tag on carbon to create a financial incentive market for energy savings and financially helping those most vulnerable around the world adapt to global climate change and drastic changes in their habitat are key to this broad-based effort. Additionally, we must focus on international standards and goals for carbon emissions reduction and developing a comprehensive plan of action to repair the damage in the Gulf.

Regarding the Gulf clean-up efforts, the President made it clear that his administration would put tremendous pressure on BP for damages to the environment and to all affected parties, requiring the corporation to create a relief fund for devastated people, industries, and communities that will be administered by an impartial third party. Kenneth Feinberg, the Washington lawyer who oversaw a similar fund for victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks and who more recently was the Obama administration’s special master for executive compensation has been selected to serve in that role.

As of Wednesday, June 16, 2010, BP and the administration agreed that the company will place $20 billion in an escrow account for such claims. This new fund will provide fund for claims for damages and is separate from funds being paid to those filing for damages in court. BP has also suspended its quarterly dividend. Obama and key members of Congress in recent weeks have pressed BP to suspend the dividend payment and give assurances that the company will meet its commitments to Gulf coast residents and businesses economically harmed by the spill. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/16/AR2010061602614.html?hpid=topnews)

So far, BP has reportedly paid out $53 million in economic damage claims, mainly in initial checks of $2,500 or $5,000. Out of the 42,000 claims submitted, more than 20,000 have been paid, while no documented claims have been denied. Read more about it here: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-claims-20100614,0,4955544.story

President Obama also put the ball in the court of Congress to make history and pass long sought after comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation. The President said, “Last year, the House of Representatives acted on these principles by passing a strong and comprehensive energy and climate bill – a bill that finally makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy for America’s businesses. Now, there are costs associated with this transition.  And there are some who believe that we can’t afford those costs right now.  I say we can’t afford not to change how we produce and use energy – because the long-term costs to our economy, our national security, and our environment are far greater.”

Phil Schiliro, the White House congressional liaison, has told the Senate to aim to take up an energy bill the week of July 12, after the July 4th break. However, several bills have been introduced with varying approaches to carbon-pricing, including the recent bill by Senator Lugar which focuses on energy policy alone without carbon-pricing at all. The administration has said it will allow any final bills to be voted on after mid-term elections in November, so it is possible that we will not see progress until the fall.

COEJL urges Congress to move quickly and adopt comprehensive climate and energy legislation and considers the President’s speech and the recent agreement with BP to be important steps forward. If we are going to significantly reduce the number of parts per million of carbon-dioxide in our atmosphere, reduce our greenhouse gas emissions significantly by 2050, and protect creation from generation to generation, then the time to start is now.  COEJL is doing this by reaching out through the community with our Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign. For although human nature has shown throughout history that tragedy and disaster often precede action, we cannot let this opportunity to create a new direction for ourselves and future generations pass.

We echo the President when he says, “The one answer I will not settle for is the idea that this challenge is somehow too big and too difficult to meet.” And we emphatically agree that, “It’s a faith in the future that sustains us as a people.”

This is our time. Join us in becoming more energy efficient and in ending our reliance on dirty fossil fuels by signing the Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign Pledge today at: www.coejl.org/covenant.