by Lucy Bryan Green

Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light (PA IPL)—a nonprofit organization dedicated to responding to climate change as a moral issue—added its voice to the increasing number of organizations and individuals opposed to drilling in the Marcellus Shale on Sunday, Sept. 18.

Vice President Rabbi Daniel Swartz explained PA IPL’s ethical analysis of Marcellus Shale drilling to nearly two dozen people of faith—including Christians, Jews and Bahá’is—who gathered outside the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center that day.

“There is no bigger moral issue facing humanity today [than climate change],” he said, adding that natural gas drilling is a part of climate change, not an individual issue.

Swartz pointed out that much of the debate surrounding Marcellus Shale drilling focuses on economic and environmental issues, while ignoring the ethical dimensions of the controversy.

“We are calling on individuals and communities of faith to practice more than what we preach,” he said.

PA IPL’s four-page ethical analysis highlights several moral principles that it says should guide religious communities’ positions on and responses to the issue: It calls global climate change a corruption of earth’s goodness and says that “Marcellus Shale drilling as currently practiced…is not part of a strategy for making a rapid transition away from fossil fuel use.”

It points to the obligation that people of faith have to oppose “those who pursue their own interests at the expense and wellbeing of others” and companies that seek “economic gains that come at the expense of harming others.” Then it outlines the possible negative environmental, health and social effects of hydraulic fracturing (the process used to retrieve natural gas from rock formations).

Ultimately, the statement calls on individuals and communities of faith “to refrain from entering into financial agreements with natural gas exploration or extraction companies.” It also asks elected officials “to refrain voluntarily from accepting any contributions from companies involved in the exploration, drilling, production, transportation, and sale of natural gas.”

Leaving some leeway for the support of drilling, PA IPL’s ethical analysis says fracking could be morally acceptable if natural gas development were a “part of a strategy to reduce fossil fuel use” and if it reduced its environmental, social, community and health impacts.

Bill Thwing, a United Church of Christ pastor and a board member of PA IPL, agreed with the organization’s stance on drilling.

“I used to be military intelligence,” he said. “When you go into new territory, you need to figure out what’s going on there before you send in your troops. [We’re not doing that with drilling].”

Sylvia Neely, president of the PA IPL board of Directors said people of faith need to consider the moral and religious implications of their energy use.

“Using resources responsibly is not just a matter of economics,” she said. “[It] is a way to show love for our neighbors, to promote justice and peace, and to affirm our relationship with God by living simply and mindfully in order to preserve and sustain God’s creation.”