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California is wary of taking this big step to fight climate change. One Democrat says it makes them ‘hypocrites’
By Joe Garofoli - San Francisco Chronicle, February 12, 2023
State Sen. Lena Gonzalez is calling out California as “hypocrites” when it comes to tackling climate change.
Specifically, the Long Beach Democrat says the state’s massive public pension funds should put its money – $11 billion worth of investments in fossil fuel companies – where its mouth is, by divesting those funds from polluters and moving toward renewable energy sources.
Pension fund leaders say that divestment may sound good and feel good, but will “accomplish nothing” – and potentially put at risk the retirement benefits of teachers and other public-sector workers.
Notably silent on this issue is California’s leading climate advocate: Gov. Gavin Newsom. And carefully watching this battle unfold from the sidelines – for now – is the politically powerful, 310,000-member California Teachers Association union. Just under 9% of its members are retirees.
Gonzalez would like to see Newsom take a more active position. She was a leader in writing the package of leading-edge climate bills that Newsom signed into law last year.
But she’s dumbfounded as to why a state that has positioned itself as a leader by demanding electric vehicles, pledged to be carbon neutral by 2045, called a special session of the Legislature to penalize oil companies for “price-gouging” and is ready to ban gas-powered water heaters is balking at leveraging the massive economic power of its pension funds to force fossil fuel companies to be more green.
Read the entire article here.
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