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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 2015)
Street Roots «February 6-12, 2015 News An inconvenient investment Activists urge Mayor Hales to keep his promise that Portland divest from fossil fuels BY E M ILY GREEN STAFF WRITER r 'X uring a speech he delivered on World ■Environment Day 2013, Portland L V Mayor Charlie Hales urged the state o stop investing in fossil fuels. One month iter, during a visit with environmental mrnalist Bill McKibben, he reaffirmed his ommitment to steering investments away rom the fossil fuel industry. But despite the mayor’s lip service to nvironmental groups and recommendations o the state, the city of Portland has since dded $20 million in Exxon Mobile bonds to ts holdings, valued at $1.57 billion in )ecember. Local climate activists are hosting a iemonstration at noon Feb. 13 in front of :ity Hall in a “friendly” effort to urge Hales o speed up the process of divesting city . tmds from fossil fuels, says protest organizer Sandy Polishuk. Participants will take part in creating a photo petition to the mayor. The Portland City Hall demonstration is part of 350.org’s first global Divestment Day. National Divestment Campaign Manager Jay Carmona says local chapters of 350.org plan to act in solidarity all over the world on Feb. 13 and 14 - from South Africa, Nigeria and Bangladesh to more than 60 cities in the U.S. She expects the largest gathering to take place in Sydney, Australia. The same day, Carmona plans to launch a campaign for statewide divestment in California. “We’re not asking the city to sell the Exxon bonds,” says Polishuk, the divestment coordinator for 350PDX, Portland’s chapter of 350.org. “We agree it would be foolish to sell them - just don’t buy any more,. The bonds we have now will all mature within the next couple years,” she says. If the city Page 7 stops buying fossil fuel bonds now, it coiild includes a five-year plan state and city be fully divested by March 2017. governments could implement to divest Hales’ spokesman Josh Alpert says the from fossil fuels without losing portfolio mayor plans to use the city’s Socially diversity or increasing investment risk. Responsible Investments Committee to “vet “Climate change and the increasing the divestment scarcity of question.” He says the natural resources committee plans to add requires an fossil fuel companies to Investment reports from the elty% investment the city’s do-not-buy list treasury shew the purchases were strategy and as soon as it’s made e w r the coarse el nine policy that empaneled; months. starting In March 2014« accounts for this The City Council created More thaa half of the $ 2 0 m illio n transformation,” parchase was made In November® states the a Temporary report: “A fossil- Socially free approach to Responsible investing can Investing Committee in October 2013. It help to mitigate the increasing risks associated with fossil fuel investments.” was tasked with making To date, no state in the U.S, has fully recommendations about how divested from fossil fuels. the city could change its While 350PDX has been urging investment policy to be more Multnomah County to make its divestment socially responsible. In July 2014, the committee official, and asking the state of Oregon to recommended the city make divest as well, the focus of the Feb. 13 a permanent committee to gathering is to encourage City Hall to manage a do-not-buy list. commit to not buying any more fossil fuel Critics argue the criteria for bonds. such a list could leave the “Portland needs to live up to its award for city with zero sound being a climate leader and divest,” says investment options. Adriana Voss-Andreae, chair of 350PDX. “As for Exxon, they have Portland received two awards from the- not done a bond issuance in White House in 2014 for its efforts to at least 20 years, so they combat climate change. have not been on our do-not- The name 350.org refers to the amount buy list Out of nowhere they of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere did an issuance, and our scientists say we must achieve to maintain • treasurer purchased it. That livability on Earth: 350 parts per million. doesn’t go through council, so CO2 in the atmosphere is currently at 400 we did not know of it,” says parts per million. Alpert. Polishuk says divestment is necessary But investment reports from the city’s treasury show both for the planet and for reducing financial risk in the city’s portfolio. She says if the all the purchases were made the reserves owned by the 100 largest oil over the course of nine and gas companies are extracted and months starting in March burned, it will put five times more carbon in 2014. More than half of the the air than the atmosphere can absorb $20 million purchase was without global temperatures rising more made in November. than 2 degrees. Oregon cities such as “These companies know this - the Ashland and Eugene, and larger U.S. cities government, activists, IPCC such as Seattle and San Francisco have already made the commitment to divest (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate from fossil fuels. Multnomah County has Change) all know that roughly 80 percent of also divested, although not officially. John the reserves need to stay in the ground. Wasiutynski, director of the Office of The reserves are going to become stranded Sustainability, says the county decided not assets,” says Polishuk, making investing in to reinvest in fossil fuels when its previously fossil fuels increasingly risky. Or, the purchased fossil fuel bonds expired in March reserves get burned and we destroy the 2014, planet, she says. In addition, the University of Oregon While 350.org doesn’t keep track of active Senate voted unanimously to divest from members, it has received e-mail list requests fossil fuels on Jan. 14, urging the UO from more than 800,000 people globally - Foundation and president to divest within about half are in the U.S. In Portland, six months. Oregon State University Polishuk estimates there are about 300 rejected similar requests from students. active and semi-active members, with 6,000 In a July interview with Street Roots, people receiving emails. Oregon State Treasurer Ted Wheeler called Locally, 350PDX has teams that work the Oregon Treasury “return focused,” and with different aspects of the climate while he wants to accelerate the transition movement and require varying levels of away from fossil fuels, he said wholesale involvement. ~ divestment in the near future is not a smart “We’re really about growing the move for a public employee pension system. movement,” says 350PDX chair Voss- Public Employee Retirement Systems, or PERS, usually contain a 10 percent portfolio Andreae. “A lot of people feel like climate change is such a big issue that there’s investment in energy, including fossil fuels. nothing they can do about it - but there’s a HIP Investor Inc., an investment adviser to the states of California, Washington and lot they can do.” Illinois, released a report in 2013 that emily@streetroots.org
