June 8, 2017

200+ Local Elected Officials Call for New York State pension divestment

Officials from 50 New York counties point to harms and tens of billions of dollars in costs to taxpayers and municipalities from fossil fuels and climate change

Elected officials call for state pension divestment

Building momentum in the #DivestNY campaign, more than 220 elected officials from 50 counties across New York State released a letter urging Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to drop the most dangerous and polluting fossil fuel companies from New York State’s Common Retirement Fund. Municipal employees across the state are covered by this pension fund, the 3rd largest in the USA, with assets of more than $170 billion.

The letter, shared in a meeting with comptroller staff, was followed by a media conference that included Rochester Town Supervisor Carl Chipman and Lou Allstadt, a former Mobil manager (one of the predecessor companies of ExxonMobil) and Cooperstown trustee.

Elected officials call for state pension divestment

Elected officials call for state pension divestment

This effort, organized by the Elected Officials to Protect New York, spurred on by concerns of the impacts of climate change on their communities, comes on the heels of lobby efforts by members of the DivestNY coalition to advance NY state divestment bills. The bills, if enacted, would compel the state comptroller to divest the pension fund. The comptroller believes that engaging companies like ExxonMobil is a better way to change the fossil fuel industry. To date, no significant and impactful change to operations of fossil fuel companies has come through shareholder engagement.

Read more about the elected officials and their letter.

Share this on social media:

FacebookTwitter