Help pass the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act (SB 1173)! Tell The Senate Retirement Committee to approve it — call in to their meeting and give a quick “Me Too” public comment. Find instructions here. (Extra points for CalPERS and CalSTRS members)
After more than a year of hard campaigning by Youth vs Apocalypse, Fossil Free California, and others, Sen, Lena Gonzalez introduced SB 1173, which would require the country’s two largest pensions, CalPERS (California Public Employee Retirement System) and CalSTRS (California State Teachers Retirement System), to divest from fossil fuels by 2027.
CalPERS and CalSTRS have an investing power of $469 billion and $327 billion, respectively. A recent report estimates that out of these funds CalPERS invests $5.5 billion in fossil fuel companies and CalSTRS invests $3.4 billion.
Many of the beneficiaries and union members whose retirement futures are invested by CalPERS and CalSTRS have passed resolutions calling for the divestment of fossil fuels, including the United Teachers of Los Angeles, the California Federation of Teachers, and the California Faculty Association.
Divestment bills have succeeded in California in the past 10 years including 2015’s SB185 a bill mandating the pensions divest from thermal coal.
According to Sen. Gonazlez’s fact sheet on the bill:
“It has become clear that the fossil fuel industry may be a risky and myopic financial investment. Major investment management firms, BlackRock and Meketa, have concluded that divestment from fossil fuels actually improves, not weakens, investment returns. A further study has shown that if CalPERS and CalSTRS had divested from fossil fuels in 2010 they would have gained $11.9 and $5.5 billion in returns by 2019.3
WHEN
Monday, April 4, 3 PM
WHERE
Online. Everything you need to know here
More ways to help:
Sign the petition to support this bill.
Call and email your legislators. Tell them to do everything they can to make sure this bill passes.
For more info see: Fact Sheet and Bill Text