Updates

Callout that reads Hyberbole in the Hearings: Pension Funds Exaggerate the Cost of Divestment

What Does Divestment Cost? Misinformation from CalPERS and CalSTRS

By Sandy Emerson | May 9, 2022

The “fiscal impact” analysis for the Appropriations Committee in the state Senate or Assembly can make or break a bill. For divestment bills, CalPERS and CalSTRS have repeatedly given imprecise, incorrect, and inflated figures on the costs of divestment, including in the numbers reported to the Appropriations Committee for SB 1173, the Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill.

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A group of diverse protesters is gathered outdoors, holding signs and banners advocating for fossil fuel divestment.

CalSTRS Exaggerates Costs of Divestment

By Owen Doyle, Lanie Goldberg and UC Berkeley Economics Professor Clair Brown | May 3, 2022

CalPERS and CalSTRS manage portfolios worth $466 billion and $323 billion, respectively, so it’s natural for these public pension funds to throw around large numbers. But evidence from the funds themselves and from independent analyses suggests that PERS and STRS wildly exaggerate both the transaction costs and the opportunity costs of divestments in general. In…

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A man with a calstrs member sign on his shirt, standing in front of a large crowd of protestors.

CalSTRS Tunes Out Teachers to Engage with Exxon

By CJ Koepp and Cynthia Kaufman | April 12, 2022

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (or, CalSTRS) prides itself on its shareholder engagement with fossil fuel companies. However, by spending their resources, time, and energy on connecting with oil giants like Exxon, CalSTRS has failed to engage with the shareholders who matter most: their own.

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CalPERS’ Portfolio Harbors Nearly $45 Billion in Stranded Fossil Fuel Assets

By Sindre Carlsen and Jonathan Li | March 21, 2022

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons As we transition towards a sustainable society, the country’s largest public pension fund claims to be doing its part. CalPERS (the California Public Employees’ Retirement System) is attempting to leverage its $27 billion in fossil fuel investments ($5.6 billion in companies with fossil fuel reserves) to ask the companies powering…

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To Help Ukraine, Will Pensions Divest From Unethical Fossil Fuels?

By David Page and John Avalos | March 10, 2022

San Francisco & California pension funds: divest from both fossil-fuels and dictators! Many of us have been watching the images of terrible destruction and heartbreak from Ukraine. Have you wondered how President Putin finances his military machine? As much as 50% of Russian government revenue comes from fossil-fuel related businesses. Unfortunately, California and San Francisco pension funds…

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Climate Justice Coalition Cheers as Senator Gonzalez Introduces Pension Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill

By CJ Koepp | February 17, 2022

Today, Senator Lena A. Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) introduced SB 1173 — the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act — in the California state legislature. The bill would mandate that California’s public pension funds stop investing in fossil fuel companies. For over eight years, teachers, students, and state workers have called for their pensions to divest from fossil…

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From COP26 to The Ministry for the Future: Review of an Evening with Kim Stanley Robinson

By Lynne Nittler | January 26, 2022

Sci-fi legend Kim Stanley Robinson is on a mission to do everything he can to save the planet we call home, firstly by writing climate fiction novels and then by talking about them around the world.  The Ministry for the Future is perhaps his best effort yet to give us both the vision and the…

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Graph of CalSTRS losses

CalSTRS Loses Over $1.63B on Fossil Fuel Stocks Since July 2019

By Vanessa Warheit | May 19, 2020

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) has lost over $1.63B since July 2019 from investments in fossil fuel companies, according to new analysis by Fossil Free California.

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