Richard Fireman is a retired emergency room doctor and the founder of Asheville, North Carolina’s branch of Interfaith Power & Light, tagline: “A religious response to global warming.”

Watch him explain his take on environmentalism as a moral and religious issue.

Watch his entire interview, where he discusses coal ash, explains why he believes it should be regulated and what you can do about the issue on YouTube. (Uploading; I’ll link to it here ASAP.)

A couple quotes from the full interview: “We have to recommit to reverence for life and develop a sacred stance toward the energy we use,” he says. “Energy is sacred. It is a one-time gift.”

He also says, “We are going to have to have a moral transformation and learn to use less energy, and the energy that we do use needs to be renewable energy.”