Dear Friends,

Bottom line first: There are bills before the Senate & House to grant coal companies huge subsidies for building"liquid coal" plants.

The PR justification is to strengthen "energy independence" for the US.

The actual effects: worsen global scorching, damage the earth, rob taxpayers, sicken workers and community residents, and -- of course -- give Big Coal huge profits.

We encourage our readers to PROTECT God's earth and OPPOSE these amendments by writing Members of Congress and newspaper letters-to-the-editor:

Please click to –

Elected officials:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/tsc/campaign.jsp?camp...

Letters to the Editor
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/tsc/letter/?letter_KE...

where you will find a draft model letter. PLEASE FOLLOW UP.

You can do that right now, and come back to our report on this issue; or read the background below and we will repeat these links.

BACKGROUND OF Shalom Center EFFORTS:

Next Monday, June 18, The Shalom Center is bringing together experts on energy policy with leaders of the Jewish community, to explore what policy alternatives we should be advocating, to reduce the danger of global scorching and heal the earth from over-drenching in CO2.

Even as we meet, Congress is considering bills for subsidizing liquid coal that we already know would be an eco-disaster. So we cannot wait till next Monday to make our views known. That's why we're asking you to write NOW.

The June 18 meeting is the first such gathering we have sponsored since October 2002, when a similar Shalom Center meeting examined both the official claims that Iraq was dangerous to the US, and the opposing claims that a war against Iraq would produce great dangers.

What we learned at that meeting convinced us to oppose the invasion and occupation of Iraq. We were right, as about three-fourths of Americans now agree.

During those 4 ½ years, it has become clearer and clearer that there were two real reasons for the invasion: (a) to control the whole Middle Eastern and Central Asian pool of oil; (b) to control American politics. The first utterly failed; the second succeeded, for at least six years.

Meanwhile, during those same 4 ½ years it has become clearer and clearer that the US addiction to over-use of oil has not only cost thousands of American and Irai lives but also endangers our planet as a whole.

So The Shalom Center has been putting great effort into work to heal the earth from the danger of climate crisis – global scorching.

We face the problem that some twists have been made on this goal by people who focus on what they call "US energy independence." For some, this means using any source of energy at all that is not Middle East oil -- coal, liquid coal, corn-based ethanol, Alaskan oil, whatever.

Most of these will actually scorch the earth worse than oil. In our view, protecting and healing our planet and the human race as a whole is the primary goal; where action for conservation (like public transport and real hybrid cars), wind energy, switchgrass ethanol, solar energy, etc can seriously reduce carbon emissions, and thus do lessen use of ALL oil, including foreign oil, fine.

Our concern for the earth as God's creation and the womb of humankind goes back to our beginnings in 1983. For years The Shalom Center focused on protecting God's earth from what was then its gravest danger -- the threat of nuclear holocaust.

Since 1989, we have done a great deal of work on a religious approach to healing the planet from various eco-dangers, especially "global scorching."

And for us, serious religion means serious action.

For our work over the years, see the whole section of our Website at –

http://www.theshalomcenter.org/taxonomy_menu/1/128/5

After the June 18 meeting, we will send out and post a report.

If you are ready now to write your elected representatives and your newspaper, please click to –

Elected officials:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/tsc/campaign.jsp?camp...

Letters to the Editor
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/tsc/letter/?letter_KE...

where you will find a draft model letter. PLEASE FOLLOW UP.

Or if you want, there follows deeper information on why to Oppose Liquid Coal Subsidies: the Wrong Way on Energy Security and Global Warming

At a time when it’s more critical than ever to take action to solve global warming and break our addiction
to oil, the “Domestic Fuels Security Act” would take us down the wrong road. By lavishing federal
support on liquid coal, it would open a Pandora’s Box of dirty fuels that would undercut our potential to
reduce global warming pollution, commit taxpayer dollars to an expensive and polluting technology of
the past, and undermine our public health and safety review process.

Liquid Coal is a Global Warming Loser. Making coal into a transportation fuel (a.k.a “coal-to-liquids”
or “synfuels”) could result in twice the lifecycle (well-to-wheels) global warming pollution per gallon
compared with the fuels we use today. Turning high-carbon coal into a liquid fuel produces heat-trapping
carbon dioxide emissions at the production stage and the tailpipe. So even if the carbon is captured and
effectively stored under ground – which is not required by the Inhofe amendment – liquid coal would still
result in nearly ten percent more lifecycle emissions than the fuels we use today. That’s simply
incompatible with our urgent need to reduce global warming pollution.

Liquid Coal is a Bad Investment. Expensive and incompatible with solving global warming, liquid coal
is a bad investment for America’s taxpayers. DOE’s own economic analysis estimates that each liquid
coal plant will cost $7 billion. Building up a commercial-scale liquid coal industry – the intent of this
amendment – would cost a hundred times that. Instead, taxpayer dollars should be invested in clean
energy resources that can compete in a carbon-constrained market. We must invest in fuels that can slash
both oil dependence and global warming pollution.

Liquid Coal is Dirty. Coal mining has devastating impacts on the land, water and air quality of our
communities. It harms ecosystems from Appalachia to the Rocky Mountains. Mountaintop removal
mining has already buried thousands of miles of streams. And wrenching coal out of the ground also
comes with a dismal record of worker safety. Liquid coal fuels would mean even more coal pollution in
our communities.

Short-Circuiting Public Health Reviews and Local Control. The Inhofe amendment resurrects the
failed ideas of the last Congress. Even though no one has demonstrated that public health and safety
reviews are holding up the construction of ethanol, oil and liquid coal refineries, the Inhofe amendment
would confront local communities and public officials with rushed, narrow, and ill-defined permitting
procedures. It would take jurisdiction over permitting controversies away from states and hand them to
federal courts. Finally, it would replace longstanding public health and safety monitoring requirements
with those deemed “substantially equivalent” by federal bureaucrats.

America Has Better Options: Clean Energy. The cleanest, fastest and most affordable way to enhance
our energy security is through greater use of efficiency and renewable energy resources. America is rich
in homegrown renewable power, including biofuels, and energy-saving innovation that can make our
transportation less reliant on oil without filling up on dirty fuels. Our national defense deserves the best.
That’s why investments should go toward bio-based fuels, fuel-efficient technologies, travel management,
and other measures that make us more secure while also solving global warming.

Now that you have the background information, we again ask you to write your Senators, your Member of Congress, and a letter to the editor, this way:

Please click to –

Elected officials:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/tsc/campaign.jsp?camp...

Letters to the Editor
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/tsc/letter/?letter_KE...

where you will find a draft model letter. PLEASE FOLLOW UP.

Shalom, Arthur
(Rabbi Arthur Waskow)