| A project of the San
Francisco based Regeneration Project, an inter-religious
organization
for deepening the connection between ecology and
faith, Episcopal Power and Light (EPL) was established
in 1997 as a religious response to global warming.
Conceived as a pilot program to mobilize the faith
community around climate change and renewable energy,
EPL began as a coalition of Episcopal churches
that banded together to purchase electricity from
a green energy supplier after the deregulation
of California’s electric industry in the
late 1990s. EPL is now a national initiative that
aims to convince not only Episcopalian, but other
denominations and faith communities as well, to
help protect Creation by reducing their greenhouse
gas emissions in a common effort to stop the global
warming trend. By joining the initiative, participating
churches agree to purchase electricity from nonpolluting,
renewable sources. In return, they receive a free
energy audit, which helps them determine how to
become more energy efficient. In addition to purchasing
green energy, congregations are urged to conserve
energy by improving their buildings, using compact
fluorescent light bulbs, and installing solar panels.
By reaching out to congregations, EPL aims to create
both emission-free churches and energy-conscious
parishioners who will practice energy efficiency
in their own homes. The recipient of numerous awards
and much media attention, EPL has inspired a number
of similar Power and Light initiatives, especially
state-wide interfaith initiatives modeled after
California Interfaith Power and Light (CIPL),
which EPL founded in 2001. EPL has recently produced
a video about the religious response to climate
change entitled, Lighten Up. |
| Christianity |
| United States of America |
| 1997–Present |
When the General
Convention of the Episcopal Church USA passed
a resolution urging energy
efficiency in 1997, Reverend Sally Bingham of
San Francisco’s
Grace Cathedral and Steve MacAusland of Dedham,
Massachusetts founded Episcopal Power and Light
under the auspices of the Regeneration Project.
The deregulation of California’s electric
industry in 1997 opened the market to green power
suppliers. Over the next several years, EPL signed
up sixty Episcopal churches to purchase clean
electricity. Although California’s green
suppliers could no longer compete with local
utility companies
after the energy crisis of 2001, they were able
to compete in other deregulated states, and the
mission to mobilize faith communities around
the problem of global warming grew. Seeking to
widen
the scope of the EPL initiative, the Regeneration
Project joined forces with the California Council
of Churches and founded California Interfaith
Power and Light (CIPL) in 2001. Along with Massachusetts
Interfaith Power and Light (MaIPL), which was
founded in 2000, The Regeneration Project has
helped
generate similar interfaith initiatives in numerous
states, including Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Michigan,
New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania,
Tennessee, and Wisconsin. In 2000, EPL was one
of twenty-five groups honored by the World Wildlife
Fund (WWF) and the Alliance for Religion and
Conservation (ARC) in Nepal, and in 2002, Mikhail
Gorbachev
presented EPL with the prestigious international
prize for sustainable energy projects, the Energy
Globe Award, in Austria.
|
| Episcopal Power and Light exists to help carry
out the Regeneration Project’s mission of
effecting a revolution in the way energy is generated
by mobilizing the religious community. It does
this by encouraging Episcopal congregations to
become better stewards of Creation by purchasing
clean, renewable energy and by implementing energy
conservation strategies in their churches and homes.
With the founding of its interfaith affiliate,
California Interfaith Power and Light (CIPL), EPL
seeks to encourage and collaborate with other faith
communities in the endeavor reduce emissions, conserve
energy, and promote sustainability. |
The Center for Resource
Solutions
Environmental Defense
United States
Climate Action Network
Union of Concerned Scientists
The Southern Alliance
for Clean Energy
Other
Green Energy Suppliers
Various State Councils of Churches |
| None Listed |
| None Listed |
| None Listed |
The Regeneration Project
The Reverend Sally G. Bingham
The Presidio
P.O. Box 29336
San Francisco, CA 94129
Ph: 415.561.4891
Email: info@theregenerationproject.org |
