California Pension Thermal Coal Divestment Would Be a First

The California Senate voted Wednesday in favor of legislation that would require the state’s — and country’s — two largest pension funds to divest of their investments in thermal coal power companies. The bill’s next stop will be a vote in the California State Assembly. If California passes the coal divestment legislation, it will become the first U.S. state to do so.

参议院临时主席介绍Kevin de Leónearlier this year, the proposed legislation calls on the $296 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the $186 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) to exit from all investments in thermal coal companies by July 1, 2017. The bill passed the Senate 24–14, in a vote split down party lines in favor of the Democrats. In the assembly, which currently holds 52 Democrats and 28 Republicans, the bill will need 41 votes to pass.

The proposed legislation, though ultimately mandating divestment, does make a nod to the role of thepension systems’ engagement with energy companies. One of its provisions notes: “In making a determination to liquidate investments, the board shall constructively engage with a thermal coal company to establish whether the company is transitioning its business model to adapt to clean energy generation, such as through a decrease in its reliance on thermal coal as a revenue source.”

The bill adds that if a board determines in its engagement that a company is bound to remain one that generates 50 percent or more of its revenue from the mining of thermal coal, the system will have to divest.

CalPERS高管明确表示，他们更喜欢与能源公司接触而不是直接撤资，不过其投资委员会在4月份投票决定，对拟议的立法不采取任何正式立场。去年夏天，针对东海湾三位市长呼吁卡尔佩斯从化石燃料公司撤资的呼吁，CalPERS head of corporate governance Anne Simpsonargued in an op-ed for theSacramento Beethat “the solution lies in engaging energy companies in a process focused on finding solutions, rather than walking away.”

加州大学发言人里卡多·杜兰说，在预期这项撤资立法向前推进的情况下，他的系统董事会在4月份指示员工开始研究倾倒煤炭库存的可能性。他说，这些员工一直在评估撤资对投资组合的影响，并安排与行业专家就行业面临的风险举行会议。

Similar divestment legislation is on the table in Massachusetts and Vermont. In both states, drafts have been refiled this year after failing in previous sessions and pension system administrators have vocally opposed legislating divestment, arguing that such a move could unwittingly compromise returns.Vermont Treasurer Elizabeth Pearce, who serves as the vice chair for the $4 billion Vermont Pension Investment Committee (VPIC), has stated in no uncertain terms that she’s opposed to divestment, and points to internal research to explain why. A November 2014 report by the Vermont State Treasurer’s Office estimated that avoiding fossil fuel companies would cost VPIC $10 million, or about 4 percent, of annual expected returns. The report also found that one-time transaction costs to meet the legislation’s requirements could reach another $8.5 million. The system’s investment adviser, Boston–based NEPC, confirmed in its own report that divestment would cost the system millions of dollars per year.

But asset managers who run fossil-free strategies say divestment doesn’t have to mean a blow to returns — though it does require that managers undertake careful risk rebalancing. Matthew Patsky, CEO and portfolio manager at Trillium Asset Management, a $2.2 billion Boston-based sustainable-investment firm, says Trillium’s fossil-free strategy has returned an annualized 8.5 percent over the past eight years, beating the 7.3 percent gain for its S&P Composite 1500 benchmark during the same period.

数十个宗教机构和基金会以及近20名美国大学捐赠机构同意禁止化石燃料投资，其中包括Stanford University. More than two dozen U.S. cities have pledged to divest, including Cambridge, Massachusetts; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco; and Seattle.

多上pensions.