Energy Options and Environmental Stewardship

by Richenda Fairhurst

The energy we choose to power our homes, churches, and lives have a direct impact on life on planet Earth—God’s Earth. If we choose dirty fuels, the mess we make will last far beyond our lifetimes.

In an earlier post, I introduced some basics about how the idea of “net zero” came together and what it means. 

To quickly re-cap: The carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere has increased over the last 150 years from 280ppm to over 420ppm. As a result, the planet is warming and this warming is having dire effects: melting ice caps, causing heat domes, and worse. We are already in trouble. We cannot add any more carbon to our atmosphere. 

At the 2024 General Conference of The United Methodist church a new, revised Energy Policy was approved by delegates. The new policy asks every church member to learn more about the energy they use, as well as the impact their energy choices have on their neighbors and our Earth. 

The bottom line is we have an emissions crisis. This problem is new in the history of human beings. It happened because fossil fuels became the dominant energy during the industrial age. 

The energy in fossil fuels is released by combustion, or little explosions. Fossil-fuel combustion, the energy released by those little explosions, is what powers your car or gas lawnmower. 

The problem with using combustion of fossil fuels or biomass for energy is that it doesn’t burn cleanly. When it combusts, bits are left over. The leftovers hang around, drifting as carbon emissions into the atmosphere and oceans. This pollution lasts for potentially thousands of years. 

I think of this sometimes in comparison to dinner time with toddlers. Toddlers are messy eaters, at least mine were. If you give a toddler some macaroni and cheese, yes, some of it will get into their mouths. But there will be a lot left over on the highchair tray, on the floor, and on their faces. These mac and cheese leftovers are now waste, cheesy globs and smears that must be cleaned up. 

The fossil-fuel combustion process is in some ways similar. Feeding a gallon of gasoline to your car wastes about 30% of the energy potential. For every gas station fill-up, you are getting .70 cents of value for every dollar. Even more is wasted when you factor in fossil-fuel extraction, transportation, and spills. It’s not just the mac and cheese. Think of that toddler carrying a cup of milk across the kitchen floor! 

The worst part is that the waste doesn’t disappear with the wipe of a kitchen sponge. Unburned fuel, exploded bits, and carbon molecules, end up rising to the skies, washing into rivers, and causing harm. 

That is where we stand, now. Millions of cars and furnaces have been munching macaroni and cheese and clean-up is now an emergency. Dirty fuels have made a mess, and the resulting carbon pollution is causing sea level rise and threatening category six hurricanes. This is why it matters so much what choices we make. The energy we choose to power our homes, churches, and lives have a direct impact on life on planet Earth—God’s Earth. If we choose dirty fuels, the mess we make will last far beyond our lifetimes. 

Moving away from fossil fuels means moving away from energy systems that make dangerous messes. It also means that even as we move to clean energy systems, we do that carefully and faithfully, ensuring we do not cause further harm or make a different kind of mess. We have to get this right. 

The United Methodist Energy Policy speaks directly to the different kinds of energy we could choose right now. It asks us to choose carefully, not only for ourselves, but for the toddlers who will live in the world we make, and the many generations of toddlers we pray are yet to come.

Energy choice rundown: 

Methane gas, coal, oil, and fracked gas processes for plastic production are key culprits not only causing the emissions that are heating the Earth, but also in the prevalence of polluting spills, petrochemicals, plastics and microplastics. Continuing with oil and gas extraction continues this pollution, which is rapidly degrading the Earth. 

The UM Energy Policy asks us to consider not just what kind of energy we should use, but also calls us to be aware of how our energy is produced. We have learned the hard way that energy cannot and must not be produced in a way that destroys aquifers, pollutes farmland, sickens communities, and heats the planet. The cost is just too high. 

Which father among you would give a snake to your child if the child asked for a fish? If a child asked for an egg, what father would give the child a scorpion? 

—Luke 11:11-12               

We need to apply scrutiny to our energy options and choose carefully. For example, hydroelectric dams seemed like a great way to produce clean, inexpensive electricity. Except that hydro caused unjust harm to rural and Indigenous people. Building them had consequences to fisheries, species, ecosystems, and lifeways. Then there is nuclear power. The nuclear conversation is complex. But at the core of the challenge there is the nuclear waste and maintenance problem. Imagine if the bits and smears your toddler leaves from their lunch were radioactive for a million years. What then? 

There is already nuclear waste stock-piled and leaking in different parts of the globe. This is waste future people will have to deal with for up to 50,000 generations. Nuclear disasters happen because nuclear energy requires precise handling and no surprises. Hanford in Oregon still stores 56 million gallons of radioactive waste that is leaking into groundwater. Just one accident at the Fukushima facility in Japan resulted in hundreds of millions of gallons of radioactive water being released into the ocean. 

Solar and wind energy, on the other hand, are currently the cleanest options available. Solar and wind energy is generated cleanly, converted rather than combusted, and makes minimal or no emissions. As we adopt clean energy, we still need to pay attention to the potential harmful effects of new technologies. It’s about more than just carbon. It’s about a faithfulness to God in stewardship to God’s creation and our neighbor. As we look to develop and mobilize to install clean energy systems, we need to ensure that we do so in a way that preserves life for current and future generations. 

Energy Policies may seem like worldly things. It is more satisfying to spend time in prayer and singing hymns! But we need to transition away from oil and gas, and quickly. And, who better to act to preserve life than the people of God! For, we can do it singing!

EXTRA

The General Board of Church and Society submitted a revised energy policy statement to the delegates of the General Conference of the United Methodist Church in 2024. The statement is worth reading, find it on the Board of Church and Society website, or work through a group reflection exercise on energy choices and the UM Energy Policy in the Net-Zero Study Guide.

Below I have pulled together quotes from the guide to form a short UM Energy Policy Creed. As a people of faith together, the people called Methodist in 2024 affirmed and agreed: 

Rev. Richenda Fairhurst is here for the friendship and conversations about climate, community, and connection. For more conversations, see the team at the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement Cafe. Find Richenda in Southern Oregon and at JustCreation.org.