EPA Testimony

I haven't posted anything here for a while, and, on top of that, I'm on a "social-media fast" for Lent. Which is to say, only a tiny handful of people will ever see this. That seems perfectly appropriate, actually, because it feels a lot like testifying at the EPA. I was there this morning testifying against a proposed roll-back of mercury pollution standards. Only a tiny handful of people there -- three staffers and a couple dozen concerned citizens, to be precise -- will ever hear these words.

Nevertheless, people of faith and conviction are called to speak out on behalf of those who cannot. In the case of mercury pollution, we were speaking out on behalf of infants, who are most vulnerable to mercury poison, and fish and wildlife who, if they could speak, would tell us that we're killing them.

In any, thanks for stopping by. If you'd prefer to watch this rather than read it, I used my weekly video blog over on the church's Youtube channel to share it there. Oh, and, just because I'm on a social-media fast doesn't mean you can't share this on your own social media accounts if you feel so called.

My name is David Ensign. I am pastor of Clarendon Presbyterian Church in Arlington, Virginia.

Congress advised the EPA to limit mercury emissions back in 1990. My wife was pregnant with our first child at the time. He was a legal adult by the time EPA finalized the mercury pollution standards that the current proposals would weaken.

Mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants has decreased by 80 percent since those rules were enacted in 2011.

I come before you now mindful of the children my son, and countless other sons and daughters across the country, will be raising in the coming years and ask merely, “why would we even consider going backward on this?”

Mercury poses its greatest threat to our youngest children, who are particularly vulnerable to this toxin. We have significantly improved the health prospects of the next generation of American children through the current rules; let’s not roll back the clock on our youngest citizens.

I grew up in east Tennessee. I’ve worked in eastern Kentucky. I’ve spent countless hours researching along the crooked roads of southwestern Virginia. I have literally seen purple mountains majestic against the golden light of sunset driving down I-81 through Montgomery County. I know the beauty of both the landscapes and the people of Appalachia.

Weakening mercury pollution standards is bad for both the landscapes and the people of Appalachia. Both the land and the people who live upon it are vulnerable and threatened by mercury pollution from dirty coal-fired power plants, among the many devastations resulting from an industry that extracts resources and leaves behind blighted countryside and impoverished communities.

The great texts of my tradition call us to protect the most vulnerable of our people, and to be good stewards of the earth and all its creatures.

As the Brief Statement of Faith of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) confesses, “we violate the image of God in others and ourselves, accept lies as truth, exploit neighbor and nature, and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care. We deserve God’s condemnation.” 

But we pray that God will act with mercy to redeem creation.

I believe God does act – even in such places as a hearing room and in the midst of routine administrative matters such as this hearing.

Even here; even now.

If we listen for the still small voice of God, speaking through the laughter of a healthy child, through the yearning voice of a young mother, through the cry of a hawk soaring above an Appalachian river – if we listen for God calling us, we will know how to respond, we will know whom to protect, we will know better than to poison our waterways; we will know better than to poison our children; we will know better than to poison our future.

Psalm 27, which we read in worship yesterday morning, begins in desolation – as if the psalmist had visited a river clogged in mercury-laden coal ash. But it ends with hope – as if the psalmist trusted us – you and me – to care for those living downstream.

“I do believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living,” the psalm proclaims.

We, too, can see that goodness if we act with compassion for those who would be hurt by the proposed roll-back in mercury pollution standards and simply say, “no.” I urge you to reject the proposed loosening of the current standards.