{"id":4969,"date":"2014-01-27T20:49:21","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T20:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/?p=4969"},"modified":"2014-01-27T20:49:21","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T20:49:21","slug":"divestment-and-reinvestment-a-big-win-is-on-the-horizon-in-st-louis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/divestment-and-reinvestment-a-big-win-is-on-the-horizon-in-st-louis\/","title":{"rendered":"Divestment and Reinvestment: A Big Win is on the Horizon in St. Louis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blog post written by Peter Thacher, University of Maryland student and member of the Take Back St. Louis campaign<\/em><\/p>\n

In just three months, St. Louis, the hometown of five coal companies could\u00a0also be home to the divestment movement\u2019s next big victory.<\/strong> St. Louis is also\u00a0my hometown, and for over a year now, I\u2019ve been working on the citywide divestment\u00a0campaign, called Take Back St. Louis<\/a>. The Take Back St. Louis initiative will change the\u00a0city charter to end incentives to fossil fuel companies and instead invest money in and\u00a0open city-owned land for renewable energy and sustainability initiatives.<\/p>\n

\"TBSTLMeme2\"<\/a>

Apply to take action in St. Louis March 9-15th: http:\/\/www.takebackstlouis.com\/springbreak<\/p><\/div>\n

When I started at the University of Maryland this past semester I joined the\u00a0campaign to divest my university from fossil fuels as well. I am part of the fossil\u00a0fuel divestment movement because divestment is an important tactic to make\u00a0the fossil fuel industry\u2019s public reputation as toxic as their business practices.\u00a0<\/strong>Once doing business with the fossil fuel industry is seen as morally unconscionable it\u2019s\u00a0unlikely the industry will be able to continue buying off enough public officials to keep\u00a0itself in existence.<\/p>\n

Many of us have found out through divestment campaigns just how engrained\u00a0the fossil fuel industry is on our campuses. Despite overwhelming support among\u00a0students, university presidents and administrations have resisted our demands, caving\u00a0to the power of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

This is also true in St. Louis, where citizens\u2019 voices are often sidelined and\u00a0coal corporations hold tremendous power, most notably Peabody Energy, the world\u2019s\u00a0largest private sector coal corporation. Peabody has a long history of human rights and\u00a0environmental abuses: for decades Peabody has been involved in the forced relocation\u00a0of Hopi and Dine (Navajo) people on Black Mesa in Arizona<\/a>, spent 2013 attempting\u00a0to shirk paying healthcare benefits to 10,000 retired coal miners<\/a>, and is by itself responsible for\u00a00.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions<\/a>, all while aggressively pursuing coal export\u00a0terminals to China<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In St. Louis, Peabody spends a lot of their time trying to neutralize dissent and\u00a0better their public image. Peabody gave thousands of dollars to our mayor\u2019s reelection\u00a0campaign, donates annually to groups like the Asthma and Allergy Foundation and\u00a0pays to have its ads at every Cardinal\u2019s game. Peabody officials sit on the boards of\u00a0the Missouri Botanical Garden, Washington University, the United Way and the Science\u00a0Center.<\/p>\n

In return our local elected officials have lavished Peabody with millions in tax\u00a0breaks to finance things like a new gym for their headquarters, including $2 million\u00a0that would have gone to our woefully underfunded public schools. Unfortunately, the\u00a0subsidization of the fossil fuel industry doesn\u2019t stop with Peabody. Just this December,\u00a0the city gave our local natural gas utility, Laclede Gas, $7 million in tax breaks.<\/p>\n

Our divestment campaign, Take Back St. Louis, is going after the tax breaks for\u00a0fossil fuel companies because taxpayer dollars should never be subsidizing the climate\u00a0crisis. But instead of trying to pressure our elected officials (who are firmly entrenched\u00a0in the Peabody economy), we\u2019re going around them. We collected 36,000 signatures to\u00a0bring our initiative straight to voters. And on April 8th 2014, St. Louis residents will\u00a0get to vote: should taxpayer dollars continue subsidizing fossil fuel companies or\u00a0should money be invested in creating a local green economy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up in the St. Louis, I have seen corporations and law firms downtown\u00a0receive tens of millions in tax incentives despite that most of their employees live in the\u00a0suburbs. Meanwhile, in city neighborhoods people are barely scraping by, taking long\u00a0trips to the suburbs to work in low-wage jobs. For many if not the majority of people in\u00a0the city, food insecurity, foreclosure threats, bad public education, and vacant property\u00a0are aspects of normal life. The corporate fossil fuel economy is not working, and the\u00a0tax breaks to Peabody are intrinsically linked to the funding cuts to our public education\u00a0system and public services.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the Take Back St. Louis ballot initiative also requires reinvestment\u00a0in a local green economy. While striking the moral blow of divestment is powerful, it\u2019s\u00a0not enough. To transition to the green economy, we can\u2019t just buy stock in renewable\u00a0energy companies; we have to put money into communities most impacted by corporate\u00a0power to create green jobs.<\/p>\n

We know Peabody and others are going to spend big to beat us at the polls. But\u00a0we also know that we have the support of all those fighting for fossil fuel divestment\u00a0and climate justice across the country. That\u2019s why I\u2019m calling on campus divestment\u00a0activists to come to St. Louis this March 9-15th to spend Spring Break getting out\u00a0the vote on Take Back St. Louis, targeting Peabody Coal in its hometown and building\u00a0grassroots power to build a local green economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Participants will get out the vote about Take Back St. Louis, receives grassroots\u00a0organizing training, learn about and tour Midwest fossil fuel extraction, and plan an\u00a0action! Dates are March 9-15th, housing will be provided and some meal on a sliding\u00a0scale of $20-$300.<\/p>\n

Please apply soon, this is the first citywide divestment campaign to be brought\u00a0before voters and will be a tremendous win for the climate movement if successful. Apply today!<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re unable to participate those dates, you\u2019re still welcome in St. Louis and\u00a0we would welcome a donation to the campaign! Only together are we powerful enough to beat\u00a0Peabody\u2019s millions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blog post written by Peter Thacher, University of Maryland student and member of the Take Back St. Louis campaign In…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}