The Clean Energy Jobs Campaign
Across Maryland, our faith communities understand that burning fossil fuels for electricity is pouring heat-trapping climate pollution into our atmosphere, causing climate change that hurts our neighbors, close to home and around the world. For too long, here in Maryland, communities of color, our children, and our elders have paid for dirty energy with their health. That’s why we’re preaching about our call to care for creation and it’s why we’re working to save energy and shift our sanctuaries to cleaner power.
Working together with labor, health, and environmental groups, we’re forming a grassroots movement to expand and strengthen Maryland’s clean energy law (Renewable Portfolio Standard, or RPS):
• Our traditions teach that the wind and sun are blessings, and state RPS laws are a powerful tool for advancing clean energy like wind and solar power. We’re seeking 100% renewable energy in Maryland by first doubling the state’s current mandate for clean electricity to 50% by 2030, determining the best plan to achieve 100% renewable electricity by 2023, and implementing that plan by 2040.
• In hard times, families turn to their religious communities for assistance, and we see the critical need for good, family-supporting jobs. We’re seeking to fund clean energy workforce development to ensure that our neighbors, particularly women and people of color, prosper in the clean energy economy.
• Over the last few years, we’ve seen polluters try to impose trash incinerators on low-income communities of color, most recently in Curtis Bay. Such facilities shouldn’t count as “renewable,” and we’re seeking to eliminate trash incineration from Maryland’s RPS as a critical first step in strengthening the law to fulfill its purpose of expanding clean energy.

Rev. Dell Hinton (Gwynn Oak UMC, Baltimore) shares about the importance of the Clean Energy Jobs Act in Annapolis.
Take Action in Your Congregation
• Share this faith cover letter in your congregation and write letters to your legislators. Find their contact information at mdelect.net.
• Host a “Climate in the Pulpits” service at your congregation – resources available here!
• Ask your faith leader to sign on your congregation to the Clean Energy Jobs Resolution (sign-on form below).
Resources
•Recording: Speaking Out for Creation Webinar – Find information and resources on 3 of Maryland’s environmental priorities in the 2019 legislative session! Read notes from the call here.
• Maryland Clean Energy Jobs Campaign & Green Amendment Faith Cover Letter – Share this letter in your faith community to educate them about the Clean Energy Jobs campaign from a faithful perspective!