So, this happened Wednesday:
A California legislative committee voted Wednesday to require state pension funds to sell their investments in coal companies, a move that caused shares of leading miners, including Peabody Energy and Arch Coal, to fall.
Shares of Peabody Energy also dropped on news that the St. Louis-based company will be removed from the S&P 400 MidCap index after the close of trading on Tuesday.
The legislative committee was hearing SB 185, a bill to require California's huge pension funds CalPERS and CalSTRS to divest from coal mining companies, authored by Senate Pro Tem Kevin DeLeon. It's part of
a package of bills to establish California's leadership on climate. And it's remarkably similar to, albeit narrower than, a fossil fuel divestment resolution I originally wrote that
passed the California Democratic Party last month.
So, Tuesday I shepherded a group of in-district activists to meet with a noncommittal Democratic assemblymember, Patrick O'Donnell, who hasn't yet distinguished himself on climate issues, while other activists met with Democratic assemblymembers Rob Bonta and Ken Cooley. Then Wednesday I flew up to Sacramento to testify before the Assembly committee on Public Employees, Retirement, and Social Security. The bill passed the committee on a 5-1 vote (including O'Donnell). Now it goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee's suspense file, and then the Assembly floor. The bill has already passed the Senate.
SB 185 is both low risk - the pension funds have 0.06% of their funds invested in coal - and high impact. It's the first divestment bill to make it this far in a state; Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont have similar bills but California is leading the way.
And California's impact can't be overstated. DeLeon, a regular participant in UN climate talks, tells people that the world is watching what California does. Norway divested from fossil fuels a couple of months ago, which required Americans to remember that Norway still exists; California's economy is four times the size of Norway's.
California has been a case study for implementing a clean energy economy. We've led the way on saying yes to renewable technology. Of the bills in the Senate package, SB 185 is unique in that it requires us to say no to dirty fossil fuels. This may be the first time California has considered shunning fossil fuels since the 1970s offshore oil battles.
To paraphrase Bill McKibben, if it's wrong to wreck the planet, it's wrong for California teachers to profit from wrecking the planet. They know it. CalPERS and CalSTRS haven't listened, so it's time to pass SB 185. The world is watching.
