Carbon Call

In a letter read during an Environmental Protection Agency hearing in Washington on July 30, the chairmen of two committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops offered their support for national standards to reduce carbon pollution from existing power plants in an effort to limit climate change. Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace, and Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development added that standards to reduce power plant pollution should protect the health and welfare of people, especially children, the elderly, the poor and the vulnerable. The bishops explained that their interest in the adoption of strong standards stems from their concern for the effect of climate change on poor people, who often live near power plants. “Too frequently we observe the damaging impacts from climate-related events in the United States and across the globe, particularly on poor and vulnerable communities,” they wrote.