skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

NYC Unions Get Update on Fossil-Fuel Divestment

play audio
Play

Monday, October 17, 2016   

NEW YORK – New York City's public employee unions are considering a push to remove pension fund investments from fossil-fuel industries.

The five pension funds in question total around $170 billion, with more than $7 billion invested in fossil fuels. In 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed taking pension fund dollars out of coal and studying the climate impact of other investments.

According to Marc Dunlea, a steering committee member for the group 350NYC, since the divestment movement began less than four years ago, investors around the world have withdrawn about $5 trillion from those industries.

"But we don't have that many governments doing it so far,” Dunlea said. “And it would be really great to see New York City take the lead, especially since New York City is one of the cities most at risk to climate change."

Union leaders and members got an update Saturday on an in-process evaluation of the pension funds' carbon footprint. That study is expected to be completed in early 2017.

Dunlea said divestment was first raised as a moral issue, as some felt the city shouldn't invest in industries that put it at risk of rising sea levels. But it turned out to be sound investment advice on a purely financial level as well.

"If they had divested when we asked three-and-a-half years ago and invested the money in other parts of the stock market,” he said, "we'd have about $5 billion more than we presently have."

And the value loss in the fossil-fuel industry has accelerated since the Paris climate agreement, when nations around the globe agreed to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius in this century, Dunlea said.

"The world has said we have to stop using fossil fuels as rapidly as we possibly can,” he said. "And if you are investing in fossil fuels, you do not have a future economic viability plan."

"350" is a grassroots network of campaigns to curb climate change. On Monday, 350 International will relaunch its efforts to promote divestment from fossil fuels, making divestment in New York City and State priorities for the coming year.



get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021