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Dear John,
It’s finally happening! Wall Street is dumping stock in fossil fuels. It turns out, investing in a dying industry is financial folly. Likewise, just five days ago, the prestigious Georgetown University in Washington DC announced it was divesting completely from all fossil fuels. But if Wall Street and universities are running from fossil fuels, shouldn’t our state governments be running too? Unbelievably, state governments continue to invest billions of dollars of public pension funds into an industry that is destroying the planet and is a financial bust.
In a recent interview, Wall Street guru, Jim Cramer, warned investors to get out of fossil fuels while they can. The world’s biggest investment firm, BlackRock, agrees. Over the past decade BlackRock has lost an estimated $90 billion by investing in dirty energy. Oil giants like Exxon, Chevron, Shell and BP have spent more money in ten years than they took in. Job growth in coal, gas and oil is way down. Jim Cramer calls this period the “Death Knell Phase '' for fossil fuels.1 Georgetown University officials have listened! They just announced a commitment to fully divest from public and private investments they’ve made with fossil fuel companies within the next 10 years. It’s a $13.4 billion endowment, so it’ll make a major impact!2 But state governments are slow to wake up. Every year, states invest the retirement funds of hard working Americans into fossil fuels. If it weren’t for these sizable subsidies, provided with our pensions, the outlook for these dirty giants would look a lot more grim. What’s more, states could be using these funds to invest in renewables. Wind and solar are among the fastest growing sectors in the national economy - outstripping job growth with fossil fuels five to one. Can you guess why every car commercial during the Super Bowl was for an electric car? Renewables are a good return on the money. At the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, we are working with others who see this as a moral issue as well as a financial issue. Not only are we facing an existential climate emergency, our pensions are being used to fund it. This is madness. We need to tell our governors and legislators to divest from fossil fuels. Sign and send a letter to put an end to this madness. Sincerely, Sources 1) "Cramer sees oil stocks in the ‘death knell phase,’ says they are the new tobacco." CNBC, 1/31/2020 2) "Georgetown University says it will divest from fossil fuel companies." Washington Post, 2/6/2020 -- Have you heard of our advocacy arm, CCAN Action Fund? CCAN Action Fund aims to create change in public policy through voter education, lobbying, and participation in the electoral process. Like CCAN Action Fund on Facebook to stay in the loop:
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