Copyright 1999 Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.
Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony
February 10, 1999, Wednesday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 2462 words
HEADLINE:
TESTIMONY February 10, 1999 RABBI DAVID SAPERSTEIN DIRECTOR AND COUNSEL THE
COALITION ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND JEWISH LIFE HOUSE
APPROPRIATIONS TRANSPORTATION FISCAL 2000 TRANSPORTATION APPROPRIATIONS
BODY:
STATEMENT RABBI DAVID SAPERSTEIN DIRECTOR AND
COUNSEL, RELIGIOUS ACTION CENTER OF REFORM JUDAISM ON BEHALF OF THE COALITION ON
THE ENVIRONMENT AND JEWISH LIFE THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES OF CHRIST AND
THE UNION OF AMERICAN HEBREW CONGREGATIONS COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY
10, 1999 I am Rabbi David Saperstein, Director and Counsel of the Religious
Action Center of Reform Judaism. 1 I am pleased to appear before you today
representing not only the broad spectrum of the Jewish community - through the
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life - but also the National Council of
Churches of Christ in the USA, comprised of 34 Protestant and Christian Orthodox
communions. The churches and synagogues I represent today include approximately
55 million people across the nation. A broad spectrum of the religious community
of the United States is deeply concerned about protecting creation, both human
and nonhuman alike. For that reason, the National Council of Churches recently
distributed materials on global climate change to 70,000 congregations. The
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life has engaged an extensive network of
national and local Jewish organizations in action to clean up our nation's air.
The U.S. Catholic Conference has a long history of engagement on issues of
energy conservation. And the evangelical Christian Environmental Council
recently adopted a resolution calling on our society to protect God's creation
from the dangers of global climate change. Each of these communities has engaged
these issues out of deep religious conviction, and concern about our fundamental
responsibilities to each other, to our Creator, and to creation. 1 I am grateful
to Rabbi Daniel Swartz of the National Religious Partnership for the
Environment, Mark Jacobs of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life,
and Evonne Smitt of my staff, for their assistance in preparing this testimony.
We are by no means experts on automobile emissions technology. But today's
deliberation is far from merely technical. Indeed, this hearing today is about
that vital biblical imperative: choose life. Members of the congregations I have
the honor to represent tell us that concern for the environment is one of the
most important issues the world faces today. Towards that end, I wish to focus
today on a rider that has been attached to the Transportation Appropriations
bill for the last several years. This rider prevents the preparation, proposal,
or promulgation of higher standards of Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE).
It thus prevents the significant potential benefit that might appear should
these standards be scrutinized and raised. According to the 1999 EPA document
"Inside the Greenhouse," CAFE standards have not been revised
since the Carter Administration. We believe it is time to consider revising them
now. Testifying before the rulers of Jerusalem over two and a half millennia
ago, the prophet Isaiah wrote. "Their land is full of silver and gold, there is
no limit to their treasure; the land is full of horses, there is no limit to
their chariots. Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their
hands, to what their own fingers have wrought." (Isaiah 2:7-8) To be sure,
Isaiah wasn't concerned with fuel economy. In his day, chariots ran without
burning any hydrocarbons. But he was pointing out a lesson that is resoundingly
relevant today. Chariots (ancient or modern), technology as a whole, power, even
riches, are neither good nor bad in and of themselves. But when we become
obsessed with ever bigger and more powerful chariots and forget their impact on
the world around us, then we succumb to the sins about which Isaiah warned. Then
our technology, our chariots, the pleasure of convenience they bring, become our
ends, our highest goals. Then they become idols -- with dire consequences for
our souls and for our society. We in the religious community are not opposed to
technology. Rather, we want to ensure that technology is used to empower people,
not to enslave them. The quest for ever faster, sleeker, bigger cars needs to be
put into context. Bigger is not always better. Rather, technology, including
cars, should be our servants. We should make decisions about their use in a
fashion that reflects the core values of our faiths and of our nation. And it is
these core values, we believe, that must inform your debate about Corporate
Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards. For raising fuel
efficiency can save lives, help consumers, strengthen our economy, help to
ensure our national security, and protect future generations. These are values I
am sure everyone in this room today shares. Let me review the potential impact
of raised CAFE standards on these consensus values one by one.
First, always, saving lives. In my tradition, we call this pikuach nefesh, and
it is a value that supersedes any but devotion to God. CAFF" standards can save
lives, for as fuel efficiency goes up, cars (and the so-called sports utility
vehicles and light trucks to which these standards should, but do not now, also
apply) emit less smog and soot. These pollutants choke the lungs of children and
the elderly, causing and exacerbating respiratory ailments, all too often
leading to death. The EPA estimates that with our present CAFE
standards, 500,000 fewer tons of carcinogenic hydrocarbons are emitted
into the air, each year, than would have been emitted had the standards not
existed. 2 Remove this rider, and we have a chance to further clean up our air
and save more lives, especially in crowded urban areas already beset by poverty
and discrimination. God calls on us first and foremost to protect the
vulnerable. Let us do so. When it comes to saving lives, raising CAFE
standards would not only help prevent global warming, it would reduce
air pollution and increase our national health. One health issue about which we
are particularly concerned is nitrogen oxides. According to the EPA's National
Air Quality and Emissions Trends Report, 1996, automobiles are a significant
source of emissions of nitrogen oxides. Continued or frequent exposure to high
concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (one kind of nitrogen oxide) may cause
increased children. Further, ozone and photochemical smog result primarily from
chemical reactions involving organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx)
in the presence of sunlight. In 1995. 71 million Americans were living in areas
where the ozone air quality standard was violated; and, according to EPA, the
current standard is not adequate to protect public health. Persons exposed to
ozone suffer eye irritation, cough and chest discomfort, headaches, upper
respiratory illness, increased asthma attacks, and reduced pulmonary function. 3
2 Oakridge National Lab Report 6715, "Motor Vehicle Fuel Economy, the Forgotten
HC Control Strategy?" by Mark Deluchi, Quanlu Wang, and David L. Greene (June
1992). Second, as you will no doubt hear in more detail from others, raising
CAFE standards can help consumers and strengthen our economy.
According to the Center on Auto Safety, CAFE standards already
save the average consumer $3000 over the lifetime of his or her "chariot," and
these savings are particularly vital to the poorest in our society. Just as
importantly for our economy, more efficient cars mean less reliance on foreign
oil. Half of the oil we use fuels our cars, and that is the same amount of oil
we import. When the CAFE standards first went into effect in
1976, new vehicle average fuel efficiency was 17.2 miles per gallon (mpg). That
figure rose 10 mpg over the next ten years, and has since stabilized at around
28 mpg. The Congressional Office of Technology Assessment reports that
regulatory pressure could raise average new car fuel efficiency by about 13
percent in 2000 and 22 percent by 2005. We can increase energy efficiency, and
our trade balances can improve as a result. 3 Climate Protection and the
National interest, by James J. MacKenzie of the World Resources Institute (WRI).
I am grateful to Devra Lee Davis of the WRI for directing me to these insights.
Which brings us to foreign policy. Let me say a word on an issue of particular
concern to the Jewish community. For more than twenty years, we have supported
strong CAFE standards, and similar energy conservation steps,
in part because we realize that dependence on foreign oil can distort our
nation's foreign policy objectives. Over the years, as circumstances would have
it, oil profits have been used to prop up a number of regimes whose values and
interests have been inimical to our own. Certainly dependence on oil has
provided Middle East nations with the lever to manipulate the foreign policy of
many nations on issues in the Mideast. Reduce our dependence on foreign oil,
share our technological innovations to help reduce the dependence of other
oil-importing nations as well, and we help ensure the policy autonomy of nations
across the globe. The basic human rights with which our Creator has endowed all
people, and the peace in the Mideast for which we yearn, may seem a long way
from CAFE standards, energy conservation and efficiency, but
they are inextricably linked. Finally, I come before you not only representing
people of faith, but as a father of two sons. I want Daniel and Ari to grow up
in a world that is not plagued by the dangers that pollution-caused climate
change may create: ever-increasing killer heatwaves, rising sea levels,
Mitch-plus hurricanes, and spreading tropical diseases. NASA reported that last
year was the warmest in modern history, with the past 18 years being among the
warmest ever recorded. We have experienced temperature swings in Washington that
cannot be healthy for trees, plants, or human beings. Ecclesiastes taught that
"For every thing there is a season, and for every time a purpose unto Heaven."
Yet we human beings are now altering our own seasons with serious disregard for
the consequences of our actions. While evidence on climate effects is complex
and still under legitimate debate, let us be clear about one thing. We cannot
afford to wait for conclusive evidence on these issues. By the time we are
certain, it could be too late. Let me say a few words about uncertainty when it
comes to complex issues such as global warming. There are many threats to human
life that are neither certain nor imminent, and climate change falls into this
category. For this reason, Jewish thinkers have devised ways of evaluating risks
and deciding upon how much prevention (or precaution) to mandate in the face of
predictable or unpredictable risks. For instance, the Bible tells us that, "When
you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you do
not bring blood-guilt on your house if anyone should fall from it." (Deuteronomy
22:8) Our great teacher, Rabbi Moses Maimonides, teaches us that we must take
action to protect others from any object of potential danger, by which it is
likely that a person could be fatally injured, including building a fence on an
unprotected roof In the Mishneh Torah, his great commentary on the Bible, he
wrote that a person (not just the owner) must remove a possible danger that
could cause fatal harm to another, even, in the case of the parapet, when the
danger is not imminent or certain. So too with climate change, we must take
action to prevent this possible danger. The lonely Voyager spacecraft confirms
that we only have one habitable world at this time. We must take care of our
resources now, to ensure that our children will truly inherit a better world -
certainly, even if the danger to them is not certain, we have an obligation to
prevent it. We can take a big step forward in reducing these risks from climate
change if we reduce the amount of carbon dioxide spewing forth from our modern
chariots. We can build for our children a future in which the bounty of God's
earth will be sustained and shared by all. Yes, this will cause some short-term
challenges and sacrifices, but the Bible reminds us to think beyond soundbites,
third-quarter projections, and the next election cycle. it calls on us to plan
I'dor va-dor: from generation to generation. Jewish and Christian traditions
teach us that we have a solemn responsibility to prevent harm to other people,
that securing the health and well-being of those alive now and those to come
after us is of utmost importance. We are called to set aside convenience and
profit to do so. We are even called to sacrifice to protect others. Raising
CAFE standards is incontrovertibly possible for us to do as a
nation, and we know it would help to protect millions of people. It is
unconscionable not to take action. We cannot become so consumed with short-term
interests so as to ignore long-term consequences. Yet even businesses generally,
and auto companies, particularly, will benefit in the long term. And forward
looking oil companies realize that the time has come to advocate for a more
energy efficient economy. The organizations I represent believe that available
evidence shows that higher CAFE standards will have profoundly
positive impacts on what we should value most in our society: children, health,
freedom, our future. That is why the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the
broadest public policy umbrella organization in the Jewish community, will make
defeating this rider one of its top four priorities, selected from all domestic
and international issues, at its annual convention that will meet in Washington
in two weeks. That is why such diverse groups, from rural Evangelicals to urban
Jews, from ancient Christian Orthodox churches to modern Protestant ones, have
come together to call for the end to this rider which, since 1996, has
effectively kept the Department of Transportation from examining these
standards. Cars, and the gold they yield, can still become idols, as Isaiah
knew. But the chariot has another meaning to Christians and Jews, for our
prophets and mystics envisioned God's heavenly throne as a chariot. And this
heavenly, sweet chariot represents the ideals, the values, we should strive for
in living a life of faith. So let me close with this teaching from Rabbi Shneor
Zalman, the founder of the Lubavitch movement. He wrote, "The hand that does
justly becomes a limb in the heavenly chariot." You have an opportunity to do
justice today. Help clear pollution from our heavens, protect our children,
promote freedom and secure our future. If you do so, surely chariots earthly and
heavenly, along with the heavens and earth themselves, will rejoice. Thank you
for this opportunity to share our views.
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February 15, 1999 
