Just in time for Earth Day, a coalition of environmental groups and state lawmakers are pushing for a new law requiring the New York State Teachers Retirement System to divest from fossil fuels, following the divestment efforts of some of the state’s largest pension funds.
Divest NY, a group of organizations supporting divestment from fossil fuels, has teamed up with Senator Jabari Brisport, D-Brooklyn, and Assemblywoman Anna Kelles, D-Ithaca, to create the Teachers Fossil Fuel Divestment Act (S.4783 / A.6331).
“As a matter of justice and basic respect for that work, teachers’ pensions should be protected from investment in fossil fuels, which threaten the very future they are building,” Brisport said.
The New York State Teachers Retirement System is a $120 billion public pension fund providing “retirement, disability and death benefits to eligible New York State public school teachers and administrators.” As of last spring it had $4.5 billion invested in fossil fuel companies such as Exxon Mobile Corp, Chevron, Marathon Oil Corp, Valero Energy and various other gas and oil corporations.
Brisport and Kelles’s new legislation would require the retirement fund to divest from all holdings in coal, oil and gas companies.
“Teachers provide critical inspiration to our youth, preparing the generation that will bear the burden of addressing the climate crisis we face, the result of our cumulative actions to date. This crisis threatens the quality of every aspect of human life and every ecosystem we depend on,” Kelles said. “We no longer have an excuse to hold on to antiquated investments when next generations investments that honor our teachers and preserve our environment exist.”
The introduction of this bill follows the New York State Pension Fund divestment from seven tar sand companies on April 13, making it the first state pension fund in New York to divest.
Efforts to convince fund managers to divest from oil companies have been increasing throughout the country. This divestment was announced by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli recently after a full review of the fund’s oil sand holdings.
The New York State Pension Fund provides retirement payments for more than one million members of the New York State and Local Retirement System.
Companies that were divested from the fund include: Imperial Oil, Canadian Natural Resources, Husky Energy, MEG Energy Corp., Athabasca Oil Corporation, Cenovus Energy, and Japan Petroleum Exploration.
Many organizations and well-known activists have voiced their support for this globally conscious move. “Kudos to Tom DeNapoli for making it clear that you can’t build your retirement on tar sands,” said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, an organization working against the age of fossil fuels.
“It is wrong to be invested in companies that are destroying the planet, and it is also financially unwise, considering that the world is transitioning to renewables, which is causing fossil fuel values to steadily decline,” said Jordan Dale, and active member of the NJ-Rockland Chapter of 350.org and a longtime proponent of the divestment strategy.
DiNapoli promised to review the fund’s investments in fossil fuels back in December 2020, and divest from “riskiest companies by 2025 as well as achieve net zero emissions by invested companies by 2040.”
Other retirement funds statewide have been making similar moves to start divestment from oil companies.
The United University Professions, one of the nation’s largest higher education unions, has been urging its retirement fund manager — the Teacher’s Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) — to divest from fossil fuels and deforestation.
The Deforestation Free Fund, a search platform allowing individuals to research whether their personal or employer investments are exposed to companies contributing to deforestation around the world, has deemed TIAA “one of the world’s largest investors in fossil fuels and agribusiness.”
According to UUP, TIAAs investments include $7 billion in fossil fuels, and $477 million in industries contributing to deforestation.
Concerns in TIAAs investments were brought up in December by the SUNY New Paltz Faculty Senate and the SUNY New Paltz UUP Chapter. Each of these groups passed resolutions for TIAA, “to stop funding climate destruction amidst an increasingly powerful fossil fuel divestment movement.”
“I am disgusted by the fact that my money is advancing climate change, deforestation, and human rights abuses,” said Brian Obach, a sociology Professor at SUNY New Paltz. UUPs release includes testimonies from both SUNY professors and even offers an undergraduate student perspective.
Alexandra Crawford, a SUNY New Paltz undergrad said, “as a young person, I believe it is vital that we hold financial companies such as TIAA accountable.”
UUPs resolution for TIAA to divest follows New Paltz’s lead. The union’s president, Fred Kowal, voiced his support saying, “we are honored to stand with those on the frontlines fighting for true environmental justice.”
The U.S. has been battling climate crises for decades, and now faces crucial years in the potential reversal of harmful environmental issues. From 2017 to 2019 over $850 billion a year has been invested in the fuel industry by U.S. companies according to IEA, a data and research association that specializes in energy.
Though the fossil fuel and deforestation divestment movements have been alive for decades, associations like The Environmental Protection Agency still provide statistics revealing that carbon dioxide emissions have increased by 9 percent from 1990 to 2014.
With this, there has been a push to confront the corporations that contribute most to industries that exacerbate our global climate crisis. The efforts of those participating in the TIAA-Divestment campaign have been effective so far, as a Brazilian company is said to be challenging the TIAA’s land holdings.
“The fight for our common future cannot be delayed or fought with half-way measures. Divestment is an urgent and necessary step,” added Kowal. Those who have taken part in the campaign hope that every SUNY will follow their lead and take these steps toward divestment from these harmful industries.
The Teachers Fossil Fuel Divestment Act awaits further action as it has passed in committee and will move to the Senate and Assembly floors. In the Senate, the bill has moved from the Higher Education Committee to the Civil Service and Pensions Committee. In the Assembly, the bill is in the Governmental Employees Committee.
According to the release, “more than 1318 institutions with assets over $14 trillion including over 300 pension funds and governments have committed to divest from fossil fuel” in New York state and around the world. Those supporting this legislation hope that the divestment efforts will continue to create a domino effect on a national and eventually global scale.
