General

• Resources for clergy about Eco-Justice
• Denominational Position Statements about Climate Change

GINI and URI’s Interfaith Letter Delivered to Senator Corker

43 religious leaders have signed the Green Interfaith Network & United Religion Initiative's letter to Senator Bob Corker to support a bill requiring No First Nuclear Strike without congressional approval and supporting Carbon Fee and Dividend legislation.

Read URI and GINI's letter to Senator Corker.

TVA and Energy Efficiency for Lower Income Households

TIPL’s Interfaith Energy Justice Letter Delivered to TVA

143 religious leaders have signed the Tennessee Interfaith Power & Light’s letter to the Tennessee Valley Authority board members, asking TVA to develop home weatherization programs for its lower income customers.  Rev. Chris Buice, Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, presented the faith leaders’ letter to the TVA board at its August 23 meeting in Knoxville.

Read TIPL’s letter signed by 143 faith leaders and see the list of faith leaders who signed TIPL’s letter to TVA.

Presently, more than half of those who live in the TVA service area do not have the sufficient income to benefit from TVA’s current home weatherization programs.  The design of TVA’s energy efficiency rebate program assumes that the customer has money to pay for the upfront energy efficiency work.

Rev. Buice also urged TVA to benefit from engaging in its recently formed lower income stakeholder process the lower income energy justice groups that have recently formed within Tennessee’s major cities

Tennessee faith leaders called upon the TVA board to

• Ensure that lower income households can benefit from TVA home weatherization programs, and,
• Make a long-term commitment to partner with local power companies, lower income voices, and state agencies to both overcome the barriers to lower income home weatherization programs and to expand lower income energy efficiency opportunities.

Read the Nashville Tennessean's news coverage.

Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)

GINI stands with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe regarding a proposed (and partly constructed) petroleum pipeline across the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

GINI has sent the Tribal Administrator a letter of support. 

Mountain-top removal (MTR) mining  

US Environmental Protection Agency "Mid-Atlantic Mountaintop Mining" site; scholarly article about MTR in WV (free download of pdf); 8/30/10 article in NY Times about MTR and lending institutions; explanation and background (general) by the Union of Concerned Scientists; 

Water resources 

TN Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) Division of Water Supply;  Water Resources of TN (U.S. Geological Survey); TN Lakes, Rivers, and Water Resources map; UT Water Resources Research Center; TN Water Resources Program (Dept of Ag); TVA Water Supply site; TN American Water Resources Association site; TN Drinking Water (US EPA);

Impact of tourism

Knoxville News comparison of tourism numbers in 2007 (by county); TN Department of Tourist Development; Report about impact of visitors to the Appalachain Trail;

Air quality 

Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), Division of Air Pollution Control and Particulate Matter 2.5 sites; Pollen Activity (by City);  Enviro-Flash air quality map; Ozone Early Action Compact info; Tennessee Department of Transportation "Clear the Air" site with a link to "The Pollution Problem" a factsheet; Air Quality (from Appalachian Trail Conservancy);

Radon

US EPA radon information for Tennessee; Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) Radon Program;

Radiation 

Linda Modica gave a presentation to the United Nations in June 2017 entitled Witness to Weapons Complex Contamination in Atomic Appalachia; Full report to the UN entitled Evidence of the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons

Advocacy Groups in Our Region

• Appalachian Trail Conservancy is active in conserving the Appalachian Trail.
• Appalachian Voices is active in "protecting the Central and Southern Appalachian Mountain Region."
• Boone Watershed Partnership is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works with local users, regional, state and federal entities, educators and others to identify and address water resource issues in the Boone Watershed, an area of about 686 square miles lying in Sullivan, Washington, Unicoi, and Carter Counties of Tennessee and Washington County of Virginia.
• Cherokee Forest Voices ...with basic facts about the Cherokee National Forest and the Wilderness area it represents.
• Forever Green Tennessee is an ongoing campaign spearheaded by promoting restoration of the real estate transfer funds.
• Friends of Roan Mountain (State Park) ...with beautiful photography by Jerry Greer!
• iLoveMountains.org is an effort to end mountaintop removal coal mining
  
• Land for Tomorrow is a partnership of concerned citizens, businesses, interest groups and local governments urging the North Carolina General Assembly to fully fund the state's conservation trust funds.
• Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy promotes protection of all the Southern Appalachian Mountains.
• Tennessee Bottle Bill Project to promote container deposit legislation. 
• Tennessee Sustainable Tourism
• Watauga Watershed Alliance