Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, founder and CEO of Dayenu, speaks at a Jewish climate action event in New York City on Sept. 12, 2021. Credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Green New Deal Network When Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin made a defiant reference to “climate change religion” in order to justify a plan to roll back environmental protections, American faith leaders and scholars reacted with confusion, sadness and anger. On March 12, the agency announced 31 actions to reconsider restrictions on air and water pollution and end the agency’s mandate to respond to climate change under the Clean Air Act. “We are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age,” Zeldin wrote in a Wall Street Journal commentary promoting the plans. An EPA press release declared March 12 “the most consequential day of deregulation in American history” and claimed the actions would lead to savings of trillions of dollars in regulatory costs to businesses and “hidden taxes” on American families. We’re hiring! Please take a look at the new openings in our newsroom. See jobs Fossil fuel interests such as the American Petroleum Institute praised EPA’s new deregulatory agenda, saying it would “secure American energy leadership and protect consumer choice.” But some faith leaders have had different reactions, starting with confusion about what Zeldin meant when he described a “climate change religion.” In recent interviews, they told Inside Climate News that Zeldin had displayed an ignorance of a growing global movement across nearly all faith traditions to voice concerns on climate change. “When I saw what he said, it made my stomach turn,” said Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, founder and CEO of Dayenu, a New York-based group working to spur national action on climate from a foundation of Jewish tradition and faith. “He […]
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