Editor’s note: This commentary is by Deborah Messing, of Montpelier, who is retired after working 22 years as the cheese and wine buyer at Hunger Mountain Co-op. She is a volunteer with 350VT.org.
[O]pen letter to Gov. Shumlin:
The citizens of Vermont should be grateful that you have taken that first and bold step in supporting the divestment of state funds from the coal sector and from Exxon Co. Coal power, the most carbon intensive source of power is our largest source of carbon dioxide emissions and as such, the leading cause of global warming.
This is, of course, in addition to the staggering effect on human health due to both particulate matter and emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.
And as you point out, coal is a lousy investment. Tom Sanzillo, a former New York state comptroller who oversaw a $15 billion pension fund, said, “Coal is arguably the worst performing sector in the whole world. Pension funds, which have a fiduciary duty to make money, have no business owning any of these companies. It is not a prospective risk; it is a now risk. Coal is not making money, not talking to you, there’s no turn around strategy and there’s an international climate conversation of which they want no part – so you divest.”
As far as Exxon, you are rightly indignant at their history of deception regarding their role in climate change, comparing it to Big Tobacco. However, we should not limit divestment to Exxon. Recent investigations by “Inside Climate News” (12/22/15), a non-partisan, Pulitzer Prize-winning environmental news organization, have uncovered new evidence that Exxon was not alone in covering up knowledge about its impact on climate change. The American Petroleum Institute (API) together with the nation’s largest oil companies, ran a task force to monitor and share climate research between 1979 and 1983, far earlier than previously known.
Vermont has no business investing in these companies. By doing so, we are giving tacit approval to their business models and their deceptive practices.
The group’s members included senior scientists and engineers from nearly every major U.S. and multinational oil and gas company, including Exxon, Mobil, Amoco, Phillips, Texaco, Shell, Sunoco, Sohio as well as Standard Oil of California and Gulf Oil, the predecessors to Chevron.
API members were told in 1979 that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was rising steadily, and how soon the first clear effects of climate change might be felt.
At this time, API task force members appeared open to the idea that the oil industry might have to assume some responsibility for reducing CO2 emissions by changing refining processes and developing fuels that emitted less carbon dioxide. Yet by the 1990s, API joined with Exxon and other fossil fuel companies in a lobbying group to derail international efforts to curb CO2 emissions, including a successful campaign to dissuade the United States from ratifying the Kyoto treaty.
This investigation reveals the existence of a longstanding culture of deception and lies underwritten by a cabal of enormous wealth and influence. Vermont has no business investing in these companies. By doing so, we are giving tacit approval to their business models and their deceptive practices.
As we now know, the Vermont pension fund is losing money on these investments. But even if it were earning money, would we want to profit from companies that are threatening the very health of our planet?
