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