wfn.org | Sierra Club, National Council of Churches Run TV Ads on U.S. Energy Policy

[Carol Fouke <carolf@ncccusa.org>]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contacts: Wendy Balazik, Sierra Club, 202-675-2383;
Wendy.Balazik@sierraclub.org
Carol Fouke, National Council of Churches, 212-870-2252; news@ncccusa.org

January 14, 2002, Washington, D.C. -- For the first time ever, the Sierra
Club and National Council of Churches are teaming up to protect America's
beautiful landscapes, launching TV and newspaper ads calling on Americans to
"keep our promise to care for creation."

Evoking religious themes, the ads say Americans ought not ruin the land
we've been entrusted to protect.  Rather than destroying special landscapes
for oil, we can find more energy through new technologies.  The television
and newspaper ads will run all week in Georgia, Arizona, North Dakota,
Indiana, Missouri and Delaware.

"People of faith take seriously the biblical mandate to be good stewards of
creation, and that means finding smarter, cleaner, safer ways to satisfy our
energy needs without damaging the irreplaceable gifts of nature with which
our nation has been so blessed," said the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar, general
secretary of the National Council of Churches.  "Furthermore, conservation
is more effective, providing much greater benefits that are more permanent,
and in the long run are less costly, than a modest and short-lived increase
in oil supply at the price of a ravaged environment."

"We don't need to ruin the land we love to meet America's energy needs,"
said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club.  "When Americans want
renewal and inspiration, we sit by a river or hike to a mountaintop.
America's beautiful landscapes are too valuable to dig, drill and destroy --
instead, we need an energy policy that is clean and safe.  With modern
technology, we can have clean energy and protect the places Americans love."

The ads say the answer to our energy needs does not lie in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge, but rather can be found from quicker, cleaner,
cheaper and safer energy-efficient technologies, and alternative energy
power like solar and wind.

To receive a copy of the ad, please contact Wendy Balazik at 202-675-2383.

For more information, please visit www.ncccusa.org.
For the latest environmental news, please visit
http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/.

Sample script:

Sierra Club
TV :30
"The Answer"
1/14/02

   VIDEO:

   Beauty shots of the seas, coasts, forests, mountains, the Arctic, the
Rocky Mountain Range, Utah.

   Quotations appear on screen.

   AUDIO:

   America: "God shed his grace on thee." (Katherine Lee Bates)

   God said: "This is a beautiful world I have given you.  Take care of it;
do not ruin it." (Jewish Prayer)

   We don't need to ruin the land we love, the land left in our care, to
meet America's energy needs.

   Drilling in special places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is
not the answer.  The answer is conservation.  Fuel efficiency.  Solar and
wind power.  And keeping our promise to care for creation.

   Care about America.  Care for America. For our families, for our future.

   Paid for by the Sierra Club and the National Council of Churches.

-end-