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Moral Principles and Energy

To address the environmental challenges of energy from a moral perspective, we return to
the three foundations of Healing Earths environmental ethic, which affirm that:
the natural world has intrinsic value
the natural world has instrumental value
environmental sustainability balances natures intrinsic and instrumental values
This foundational ethic forms the basis for the more detailed ethical norms we need to
guide our decisions about energy. These norms are expressed through moral principles,
goals, and virtues.
Among the intrinsic values of the natural world, the suns solar energy ranks among one of
the highest features. Solar energy (along with hydrothermal vents) is what makes
biological life possible on Earth. By activating the planets life-giving processes, the sun
enables plants to grow, rain to fall, and wind to blow. If food, water, and atmosphere are
valuable in themselves, then their source of energy is likewise intrinsically valuable.
As an expression of our moral obligation to care for creation, we are called to draw on the
energies of nature in ways that neither exhaust non-renewable sources nor impedes or
damages renewable sources.
The challenge of transitioning to sustainable energy sources worldwide is a matter of
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human rights. Just as human beings have a right to the basic necessities of life, such as
shelter, food, etc., all people also have a moral right of access to the energy they need for
life. However, national governments around the world are yet to translate this moral right
into a legal requirement. For example, 18% of the worlds population currently lives without
electricity. Legal recognition of the right to energy would direct foreign aid and national
infrastructure projects toward a more just distribution of energy resources so that all
people could have access to electricity (as well as the other forms of energy they need).
To this end, the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, named 2014 - 2024 as
the Decade of Sustainable Energy for All. Throughout this decade, the U.N. will encourage
governments and non-governmental organizations to make renewable and sustainable
energy available to more people. One project included in this effort is the global tracking
framework, which gathers baseline energy availability data from around the world and
provides bi-annual updates on trends in energy access.
From a moral perspective, energy is also considered a common good; that is, a power
that enables social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready
access to their own fulfillment.3 The [gt]Energy, Justice and Peace[/gt] (EJP) document
further states:
Access to energy--and to the various energy sources or resources, as well as to all the
other natural resources--is one of the conditions for todays realization of the common
good.4
While an individual person, company, or state institution may legally own an energy source
(such as a coal mine, hydroelectric dam, or wind farm), ownership is only considered
morally legitimate when the use of that energy neither harms human beings, nor destroys
the sustainability of other living species.
As we have noted in the Biodiversity and Natural Resource chapters, the common good is
grounded in the moral principle of the universal destination of earthly goods. According
to this principle energy has a universal destination, it is to be used for all people, because
it is a fundamental requirement for life. However, the moral principle of the universal
destination of goods can conflict with the economic interests of individuals or nations who
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fail to acknowledge that the concept of private property was created by political and
social interests. Therefore, although humans have created social methods to make private
ownership of land and natural resources legal, EJP tells us that [w]hatever the forms of
property may be, as adapted to the legitimate institutions of peoples, according to diverse
and changeable circumstances, attention must always be paid to the universal destination
of earthly goods.5
Imagine that the air we breathe could be owned as private property. If you were not the
owner of private air, then you would have to buy or rent it from someone who does.
Imagine further that the owner who sells you air to breathe decides to raise the cost of air
to a price that you cannot afford. What would happen to you? How would you get the air
you need to breathe? You would have to either find less costly air for sale or rent air from a
private owner (who will most likely charge you interest). Without air, humans (as well as
other organisms that rely on elements of the atmosphere for life) would suffocate and die.
In the above scenario, we can recognize that the owners decision to raise the cost of air to
an unaffordable price for his customers is morally reprehensible. Air, like energy, has a
universal destination; it must be available to everyone because life depends on it. Allowing
the ownership of air would only be morally justified if that ownership made air more easily
accessible (than when it is not owned) to those who need it. In the case of the owner
above, the opposite happensthe owner makes air less accessible to people who need it
by raising the cost to an unaffordable price.
Moral ownership of energy--whether by individuals, municipalities, businesses, or states-must combine a just benefit to the owner with a sincere effort at improving clean energy
distribution for the community. As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops state
in their Reflections on the Energy Crisis: energy is a tool for fulfilling essential human
needs. No energy policy is just which fails to meet these needs.6
The moral principle of the preferential option for the poor calls us to find ways of making
energy available to human beings who need it for survival. It is estimated that over three
billion people in the world rely on traditional biomass, such as wood, for daily food
preparation and heating (this is a little less than half of the worlds population). Additionally,
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an estimated 1.2 billion people in the world live without electricity. Even where electricity is
available, millions of people cannot afford to buy it.
In the section below, we will use the virtue of justice as a lens through which we can
examine in more depth the vast inequality between the energy abundance in developed
countries and the energy poverty experienced in the developing world. Policies developed
to address energy equality must also observe the principle of subsidiarity; that is, national
and international organizations should be ready to give energy aid (subsidium) to local
communities, but in so doing not restrict or eliminate the ability of smaller social units from
taking environmentally sound energy initiatives on their own.

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