University of California sells off $200 million in coal, oil sands assets

Cecilia Jamasmie | September 11, 2015 | 3:45 am Education Energy Europe Coal 
University of California sells off $200 million in coal, oil sands assets

University of California, Berkeley Campus. (Image courtesy of UC)

The University of California became the latest American educational institution to unload its endowment and pension fund holdings in coal and oil sands companies, in a $200 million move linked to environmental concerns and rising financial risk.

Chief Investment Officer Jagdeep Bachher said the assets were no longer good investments for the university’s $98.2 billion fund, Reuters reported.

UC still holds about $10 billion in other energy and utilities industry investments — equivalent to about 10% of the system’s endowment and pension funds. Bachher noted there were no plans to shed oil and natural gas stocks as, he said, “the world is not switching out of fossil fuels.”

However he said in a statement the university believes that climate change is “an active risk factor to consider when we evaluate investment opportunities.”

The decision comes after the California state legislature last week passed a bill requiring its two large state pension funds – Calpers and CalSTRS – to divest from coal mining companies.

It also comes almost exactly a year after the university system’s regents committee announced it would not sell off stocks and holdings in oil, coal and natural gas. At the time, the committee said they were “trying to balance the cause of climate change with the need to earn strong financial returns in the funds that support pensions, faculty chairs and scholarships,” according to Los Angeles Times.

Stanford University and the University of Maine have recently made similar moves.

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6 Comments

  • Pat Wood

    Liberal idiot warmists…………selling at the bottom.
    You’d think they’d take a cue from commie puke George Soros.
    He’s snapping up coal stocks, after spending lots of time and effort running them into the ground with his leftist organizations.
    When the lights go out, the warmists will be screaming when their Iphones can’t be charged anymore.
    Fools.

  • Pat Wood

    Ms. Jamasmie:
    You post a lot of articles hostile to the fossil fuel industry.
    I think your bias is showing, dear.
    Journalist should (should) check such, at the door when they leave for work each morning.

  • Mike Failla

    It seems that chicken little resides at the university then. How a university of higher learning buys into a sham and fraudulent movement is just beyond stupid.
    Promoting an ideology instead of fact is just……_____________________. (fill in the blank).

  • Kenneth Viney

    Perhaps the WH adm. should tax these huge funds at 39% instead of the cap gains at 15% so they also “PAY THEIR SHARE”. Trump says ” WE SHOULD CUT BACK OUR SHARE OF SPENDING”

  • gjiertu

    Why are there global warming denialists complaining about this? If you are so sure about the future of coal, then by all means go on and buy what these guys are selling. I thought you liked it when people have the freedom to put their money where they want.

    And a “university of higher learning” buying into denialism is what would be terribly ludicrous.

    Mining has a key role to play in the sustainable future. Solar panels and windmills need metals, as obviously does any other clean technology that we could think of. Instead of fighting it, miners should be embracing the fight against global warming.

    What humankind does not need to do is burn more fossil fuels. Keep it in the ground.

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