Energy Policy Subscribe
A selection of initiatives, blogs, resources and communities on Jewcology which focus on energy policy.
From the Blogs
Official Launch of Jews Against Hydrofracking: Learn how you can help combat this Environmental & Public Health crisis!
- November 9, 2011
If one Jew sins, all of Israel feels it….This can be compared to the case of men on a ship, one of whom took a drill and began drilling beneath his own place. His fellow travelers to said to him:what are you doing?’ He replied: ‘What does that matter to you, I am drilling only under my own place?’ They continued: ‘We care because the water will come up and flood the ship for us all. Midrash: Vayikra (Leviticus) Rabbah- 4:6 First off, open http://www.facebook.com/jewsagainsthydrofracking in a new window and like ...
My arrest at theTar Sands Protest
- November 6, 2011
This was one adventurous day. There was the earthquake. Where were you when it occurred? I was just outside the Park Police holding cell after being released from police custody. I joined in today, very unexpectedly, with about 60 others to be arrested for “failure to obey a lawful order”. We stood in three long lines in front of the White House singing and chanting our protest of the Tar Sands oil pipeline that would extend from northern Canada, down through the heartland of the West, and directly through Yellowstone National Park, to Texas. ...
“This is our nation’s Yom Kippur moment.” Testimony to State Department against Keystone XL Pipeline
- October 10, 2011
Joelle Novey, Director Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light Friday October 7 Testimony to State Department Against Keystone XL Pipeline Through Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light, hundreds of congregations of all religious traditions work together on energy and climate issues. I am submitting into the record today hundreds of comment cards from local churches and synagogues where good folks have concluded that the Keystone XL Pipeline would do great harm, and that their religious traditions call them to speak out. These cards ...
“Is this the pipeline that is desired of us?” Talk to Rally Against Keystone XL Pipeline
- October 10, 2011
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Joelle Novey, Director Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light Delivered to Sept 2 2011 Rally Against the Keystone XL Pipeline Behind the White House I speak this afternoon on behalf of hundreds of congregations in the DC area that are working to respond to climate change in their sacred communities. These congregations work together through an organization called Interfaith Power & Light. And I speak as one of dozens of religious people – priests and ministers and rabbis, Christians and Jews and Muslims and Unitarian Univer...
Bill McKibben Calls for Civil Disobedience Campaign in Washington DC in August 2011
- August 3, 2011
By Rabbi Arthur Waskow Bill McKibben and several other leaders of the USand world-wide movement to prevent climate disaster have called for a wave of nonviolent civil disobedience at the White House gates between August 20 and Labor Day. The action will focus on convincing President Obama to withhold permits for the so-called ‘Keystone XLPipeline’ from Canada’s tar sands to flow to Texas refineries, thence to add enormously to planet-scorching CO2. Below you will find McKibben’s letter. More than 1100 people have ...
4 Jewish Summer Camps Sell “Fracking Rights” that Endanger Drinking Water, Food, Health, & Climate
- August 3, 2011
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By Rabbi Arthur Waskow (7/14/2011) The Forward, the leading national Jewish weekly, on July 14, 2009, reported that four Jewish summer camps in Pennsylvania have signed leases with gas exploration companies to allow “fracking” –- the hydro-fracturing method of pouring tons of highly chemicalized water to smash shale rocks into releasing natural gas. The four are Starlight’s Perlman Camp, which is owned and operated by B’nai B’rith; Camps Nesher and Shoshanim, which share a property in Lakewood and are owned and ...
The Tar Sands, Hydro-fracking, and Climate Reality
- August 1, 2011
After the failure of the climate negotiations in Copenhagen 18 months ago, it seemed to me that the environmental movement was taking a long pause, trying to figure out how to engage the American population in the greatest challenge of our time. It seems to me now that this pause has ended, with a flurry of new activity that I’ve seen recently encouraging action on energy and climate change. There are three campaigns that I’ve recently become familiar with, and I will mention them with an eye toward what they are fighting and the difference ...
On Technology and Faith
- July 20, 2011
- 1 comment
I have worked myself up into a state of near-frenzy lately, driven by my concern for the state of the world and its inhabitants. Despite my best efforts to remain calm, it seems to me that Chicken-Little’s call of, “The Sky is Falling” rings truer every day. From widespread environmental destruction to pending economic collapse to illegal and unconstitutional U.S. military aggression, the future of the humanity is looking gloomier on a daily basis, headed, it seems, for a catastrophe of biblical proportions. This is perhaps an appropriate ...
A Sense of Place
- July 19, 2011
- 4 comments
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Modern American culture doesn’t have much to say about the importance of place. Of course, we have landmarks: the Statue of Liberty, the Washington Monument, Mount Rushmore, to name a few. But what is important about those places is what is there, or what once happened there. It’s not the place itself that claims us. It’s a combination of monument and memory. As Jews we are more likely to have a real sense of what place means. We’ve been to Israel, a land that has been a part of our history for millennia, and that today ...
Playing Politics With The Environment
- June 12, 2011
- 1 comment
Following politics can be frustrating, to say the least. Whoever said that ignorance is bliss may have hit the nail on the head when it comes to ordinary citizens and their choice whether to take an interest in elections and the decisions that our elected leaders make in regards to policy. This is especially true when there is a leader who gains your respect because he/she bucks their party (either Democrat or Republican) and makes a decision based on both the information presented and on that elected officials set of values. It seems to be me, that more often ...
The Future of Nuclear Energy and the Threats of Coal & Natural Gas
- April 7, 2011
- 2 comments
Like most of the world, I have been giving a lot of thought recently to the question of nuclear energy. Just 4 weeks ago, before the Fukushimadisaster, I was asked a question about Nuclear energy while presenting at Tribefest in Las Vegas. I gave my standard answer, an answer that has been haunting me for weeks. “Unfortunately, while nuclear energy may have long term environmental consequences, the imminent threat of climate change and the economic realities of the energy markets make nuclear a necessity in the short term.” What is clear in my ...
Power to the People? Energy Battle in Israel Pits Firms vs. Public Interest
- February 4, 2011
- 2 comments
NEW YORK (Feb. 4, 2011) — This month, the Knesset will make one of the most important votes in its history. After all, it’s not every day that a country has the opportunity to revolutionize life for its people. Of course, it’s not every day that a country discovers more than $300 billion in the ground. But after finding some of the largest natural-gas deposits in the world just off of its coast, that’s the situation in which Israel finds itself. The Tamar and Leviathan gas fields can change life for every Israeli. Currently, Israeli ...
