Dear Representative/Senator... I have a simple request: I don't want to be scared that my children won't have a planet to live on. I believe that our

Transcription

1 Dear Representative/Senator... I have a simple request: I don't want to be scared that my children won't have a planet to live on. I believe that our elected officials must do more to combat climate change. Burning carbon based fuels is changing our atmosphere and causing global warming. If left unchecked, our familiar landscape will change dramatically. We will be leaving our children with a tremendous burden as they try to adapt to an ever hotter world with extreme weather and an unpredictable future. Climate change is an environmental crisis that needs a political solution. We must transition to renewable non carbon energy sources. We also must rediscover public planning and develop mass transit alternatives while insisting on energy efficient building codes for industry and residences. But the fossil fuel industry holds sway over our political system, blocking meaningful action. We have to act now to prevent a climate crisis, and this means that we have to challenge the business model of the richest corporations in world history. They would burn every drop of oil, gas, coal, and tar sands to make a profit even though it comes at the price of human lives. As a State Senator (Representative) you can join me in taking action against the power of the fossil fuel companies. Around the country, universities, pension funds, cities, and individuals are divesting from the top 200 publicly traded companies that hold the majority of the world's fossil fuel reserves. (See Seattle to learn about one example.) You can join other elected officials to ensure that Maine money is not invested in these companies. Currently there are no restrictions against investing in publicly traded fossil fuel stocks, and the Maine State portfolio is full of such investments. Our state should take a moral stand on this issue and declare that the state treasurer will make no new investments in the top 200 companies and divest all currently held stocks within five years. Maine can join thousands of other citizens around the world as we take a stand against business as usual in the fossil fuel industry and invest in the future. Screening investment portfolios for socially responsible investments, such as fossil fuels, does not necessarily lead to lower returns. Maine s Unity College has successfully divested from fossil fuel stocks and believes its portfolio will continue to outperform benchmark indexes. (See President Mulkey s complete statement.) I hope you will review the enclosed material and join Representative Jones (House District 45) in sponsoring LR 730. Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to working with you to develop new solutions to climate change. Sincerely, Name Address Phone

2 Legislative Alert Support LR 730, An Act To Require the State To Divest Itself of Funds from Fossil Fuel Companies. In 2012 we began to see clearly the effects of human induced climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Record warmth, massive storms, and terrible droughts became the new reality. Here in Maine, we saw a March heat wave that severely curtailed maple syrup production in southern Maine and caused many fruit orchards to prematurely blossom but not set fruit. Additionally the least snowfall in two decades heavily impacted Maine s winter recreation industry. The new climate s negative health effects also became apparent as incidences of Lyme disease increased along with asthma and other respiratory illnesses. We can no longer say that addressing climate change is something we can put off. Our continued reliance on fossil fuels to power our economy will result in further global warming and more severe consequences. The scientific community warns that an increase of global temperatures above 2⁰C will lead to long term, irreversible, worldwide disaster. The 2⁰C limit was the only point of consensus reached by world governments at the 2009 Copenhagen climate conference. It has been determined that the fossil fuel industry already has in its reserves five times the amount of carbon that it will be safe to burn. Burning all the current reserves will heat our planet 4⁰C. Yet the fossil fuel industry continues to explore for additional sources of fossil fuel and promote dirtier and more extreme forms of energy like tar sand oils and fracked natural gas. Clearly it is a rogue industry in need of greater regulation. Policy makers in Washington and around the world are doing very little to make sure this excess of fossil fuel stays in the ground and is never brought to market. The hundreds of millions of dollars spent by the industry in lobbying politicians have successfully blocked all efforts to implement an energy policy that will ensure a livable planet for our children and grandchildren. If we are going to shift the momentum away from burning fossil fuels, the impetus will have to come from outside Washington. We believe that divestment of fossil fuel investments from the Maine State Treasurer s cash pool and all other investment funds is a direct way we can disengage from the fossil fuel industry. It will serve as a public denouncement of their policies and separate our state from their immoral and irresponsible business model. We ask you to support LR 730 which will guarantee that no new investments are made in the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies and mandate that the Maine Treasurer begin to divest currently held stock in those companies and complete the process in five years. 350Maine

3 Seattle Mayor Orders City to Divest from Fossil Fuels POSTED BY JAMIE HENN DECEMBER 22, 2012 SEATTLE, WA Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn sent a letter to the city s two chief pension funds on friday, formally requesting that they refrain from future investments in fossil fuel companies and begin the process of divesting our pension portfolio from those companies. Climate change is one of the most important challenges we currently face as a city and as a society, wrote Mayor McGinn in a letter to the Seattle City Employees Retirement System (SCERS) Board and the City of Seattle Voluntary Deferred Compensation Plan Committee. I believe that Seattle ought to discourage these companies from extracting that fossil fuel, and divesting the pension fund from these companies is one way we can do that. Along with encouraging the pension funds to divest, Mayor McGinn also committed to making sure that city funds stay out of the fossil fuel industry, writing, The City s cash pool is not currently invested in fossil fuel companies, and I already directed that we refrain from doing so in the future. Valued at $1.9 billion, SCERS is also the largest investment portfolio yet to consider fossil fuel divestment. While the full value of SCERS fossil fuel investments is still unknown, according to the city s finance director, the system currently has $17.6 million invested in ExxonMobil and Chevron, which represents roughly 0.9% of the system s assets. Seattle is the first city in the nation to join the growing Go Fossil Free divestment campaign, an effort that has quickly spread to over 192 campuses across the country and is now moving off campus to cities and states. Mayor McGinn helped launch this new divestment movement on November 7, at the kick-off event for the Do The Math tour, a 21-city roadshow put on by the international climate campaign 350.org to connect the dots between extreme weather, climate change, and the fossil fuel industry. Standing in-front of 2,000 cheering Seattle residents, Mayor McGinn committed to look into divesting city funds from the industry on Friday, he made good on his word. Mayor McGinn deserves great credit for being a pioneer, said 350.org founder and Bill McKibben, who has helped spearhead the new divestment movement. Sandy was a reminder of just how much our cities have at stake from climate change standing up to the fossil fuel companies isn t easy, but it s much easier than standing up to an ever-rising ocean. In his letter to the pension boards, Mayor McGinn highlighted the threat climate change poses to Seattle and the reasons why divestment was both the moral and responsible thing to do. There is a clear economic argument for divestment, wrote McGinn. While fossil fuel companies do generate a return on our investment, Seattle will suffer greater economic and financial losses from the impact of unchecked climate change.

4 Unity College Board of Trustees votes to divest from fossil fuels Stephen Mulkey President Unity College Unity, ME November 2012 We are running out of time. While our public policy makers equivocate and avoid the topic of climate change, the window of opportunity for salvaging a livable planet for our children and grandchildren is rapidly closing. The way forward is clear, though for many confrontation-averse academics the path seems impassable. It requires action that is unnatural to the scientifically initiated: to fight to regain the territory illegitimately occupied by the climate change deniers. Every day that we avoid taking action represents additional emissions, and additional infrastructure that is dependent on our fossil fuel based economy. In our zeal to be collegial, we engage with those who are paid by vested interests to argue that our Earth is not in crisis. When these individuals demonize public investment in alternative energy, we fail to point out how the oil industry benefited from significant taxpayer support in its infancy and continues to receive government subsidies today. We also sidestep the thorny issue of how oil and coal, in particular, fund large-scale organized opposition efforts to deny legitimate science, winning the battle for climate change public opinion with slogans, junk science, and money. While there is much uncertainty about how climate change will play out with respect to specific regions and weather patterns, one thing is very clear: Our current emissions trajectory will carry us beyond 5 o C average global warming by This will be a planet that is not consistent with our civilization and science shows us that the impact will be largely irreversible for a millennium. I don t know how the stakes could get any higher. Higher education is positioned to determine the future by training a generation of problem solvers. As educators, we have an obligation to do so. Unlike any time in the history of higher education, we must now produce leading-edge professionals who are able to integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines, and understand social, economic, and resource tradeoffs among possible solutions. Imagine being a college president and looking in the mirror twenty years from now. What would you see? Would you be looking at a professional who did his or her best to avert catastrophe? For me, the alternative is unacceptable. Those within higher education must now do something they have largely avoided at all costs: confront the policy makers who refuse to accept scientific reality. We must be willing to lead by example. Like the colleges and universities of the 1980 s that disinvested from apartheid South African interests and successfully pressured the South African government to dismantle the apartheid system we must be willing to exclude fossil fuels from our investment portfolios. We must divest.

5 The colleges and universities of this nation have billions invested in fossil fuels. Like the funding of public campaigns to deny climate change, such investments are fundamentally unethical. The Terrifying Math of the 350.org campaign is based on realistic, reviewed science. Moreover, in our country it is clear that economic pressure gets results where other means fail. If we are to honor our commitment to the future, divestment is not optional. This is especially true for Unity College, where Sustainability Science, as developed by the U.S. National Academy of Science, guides our academic mission. I am proud to be a part of the 350.org program of divestment, and I am especially proud of the Unity College Board of Trustees for their willingness to make this affiliation. Indeed, the Trustees have been on the path of divestment for over five years. The Trustees have looked at the College s finances in the context of our ethical obligation to our students, and they have chosen to make a stand. I can think of no stronger statement about the mission of Unity College. Our college community will lead by fearless action. We will confront policy makers who continue to deny the existence of climate change. We will encourage those who work in higher education to bravely step out from behind manicured, taxpayer funded hedges, and do what needs to be done. We will not equivocate, and we will meet those who have been misled by climate change denial in their communities. The time is long overdue for all investors to take a hard look at the consequences of supporting an industry that persists in employing a destructive business model. Because of its infrastructure and enormous economic clout, fossil fuel corporations could pump trillions into the development of alternative energy. Government subsidies and stockholder shares could be used constructively to move these corporations to behave responsibly. Higher education is the crown jewel of the United States system of education, and it remains the envy of the world. Higher education has always been dedicated to the highest standards of honesty and integrity. If our nation s colleges and universities will not take a stand now, who will?