While Brown decided against divesting about $1 million (or 1 percent of its endowment) from 15 coal companies Sunday, Providence is considering moving more than $10 million of its $283,294 million pension nest egg from 39 fossil fuel companies to more socially responsible funds. What those new funds might be has yet to be determined.
Wainwright Investment Counsel produced this list for the city in August:
Equities
BP ………………………..$1,180,601
Chevron Corp ………..$692,395
Conocophillips ………$479,964
Energen Corp ………..$131,459
Eni Spa …………………$835,907
EQT ……………………..$191,165
Exxon Mobil …………..$646,875
Gdf Suez ………………..$1,244,539
Lukoil ……………………$612,200
Marathon Oil ………….$298,152
Marathon Oil Corp ….$154,712
Marathon Petroleum .$102,295
Mitsubishi ………………$544,447
Noble Energy ………….$143,102
Occidental Petroleum.$59,664
Questar Corp …………..$52,492
Sm Energy ………………$151,550
Southwestern Energy .$196,665
Swift Energy ……………$71,790
Total SA ………………….$1,253,430
Total equities ……..$9.043,403
Fixed income
Alcoa ………………………..$108,665
Anadarko ………………….$118,718
Arcelormittal …………….$18,113
Chesapeake ………………$152,600
Continental ………………$58,350
Encana Corp …………….$123,921
Newfield Exploration ..$108,150
Occidental Petroleum ..$240,890
Peabody Energy ………..$76,688
Petrobras ………………….$189,128
Questar Corp …………….$145,636
Rio Tinto ………………….$129,038
Rio Tinto ………………….$88,621
Sm Energy ………………..$15,900
Statoil Asa ………………..$160,545
Teck Resources …………$5,100
Teck Resources …………$117,627
Total ………………………..$1,857,689
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Activists are calling for Brayton Point to be shut down. Check out their website here. This summer, it says, “over one thousand people will participate in a march from Brayton Point to the future site of the nation’s first offshore wind farm to demonstrate our support for a transition from the fossil fuels of the past to the clean energy of the future.”
Why are they calling for the coal plant to be shut down? Well, one reason is, according to the newspaper, it seems to be giving the neighbors cancer. They report:
]]>Brayton Point power plant neighbors complain about the impact of the plant’s operations on their homes and health. On resident in his ’70′s, who declined to give his name, said he has cancer, his wife has cancer, and so did eight others on his street alone (naming them). “We call it cancer alley,” he said of his street.
Here’s the press release from Brown Divest Coal, a group that is calling on new President Christina Paxson to stop investing Brown’s money in the “Filthy Fifteen,” businesses Brown invests in that are bad for the planet:
Three Brown professors and a coal activist from West Virginia will highlight the environmental, social, and political impacts of the Coal industry at a teach in on Thursday organized by the Brown Divest Coal Campaign. The Brown Divest Coal Campaign is a new campus effort with the support of over 1400 students calling on president Christina Paxson to divest the University’s endowment holdings from the ‘Filthy Fifteen’ – the ten dirtiest US utilities and the five least responsible coal mining companies.
WHAT: In order to educate students and the community about the new campaign, three professors will discuss different aspects of the coal industry, including professor Dawn King, who will speak about coal’s global reach and professor Tim Herbert speaking about coal and its links to climate change. Dustin Steele, an anti-mountaintop removal activist from West Virginia, will speak about the impact of the coal industry on his community.
WHO: Professors Dawn King, Tim Herbert, and Stephanie Malin; coal activist Dustin Steele.
WHEN: Thursday, October 25th at 7:00 PM – 8:15 PM.
WHERE: List Art Room 120 (Access Via 64 College St) Google Map
VISUALS: Speakers will appear on stage with presentations. At the end of the presentations, campaign members will gather on stage with a banner to answer questions about the campaign and engage with the audience.
]]>The protection of the environment, investment in the renewable energy economy and reduction in power of special interest takes strength in numbers. This holds true in Congress as well. For that reason, candidates must be judged in context of who they will call friends. Our Congress has few green-blooded environmentalists left.
First District, First:
[The Infrastructure Jobs and Energy Independence Act] dedicates revenues from new energy exploration to slash our deficit, build clean-coal plants, clean up our air and water, increase our use of renewable energy, and rebuild our crumbling highways and bridges.
Not so bad. Though “clean-coal” is a fairy tale. There is as much clean coal in our nation as there are glaciers inFlorida. Even President Obama, endorsed by by CWA, Sierra Club and Environment America, has swallowed this pill in order to win Ohio.
…with gas close to $4 a gallon, it is time to end our addiction to foreign energy. David has been working hard to rein in excessive Wall Street oil speculation, which many experts agree is part of the rising price consumers are paying at the pump. David is also focused on the long-term energy independence of our nation. The only way to get gas prices down in the long run, while also helping improve our environment, is to support the development of renewable energy and advanced vehicle technologies.
It isn’t hard to be an environmentalist in Rhode Island. It is a single fishing trip off Point Judith, kayak tour of Narrow River, spring hike in Lincoln Woods or daring leap off the cliffs at Beavertail. Every Rhode Islander connects quality of life with the environment. Every Rhode Island Congressman goes to Washington. Folks in that town brought us the Safe Drinking Water Act and then exempted hydraulic fracturing chemicals from its oversight.
Doherty will claim to reach across the aisle if elected. Scott Brown said that too. A New England Republican might do so in support of environmental protections, see John Chafee and Mitt Romney v. 1.0. Sen. Brown’s F on the most recent environmental report card indicates otherwise. This Congress took 297 votes to weaken public health and environmental protections. On which side of that aisle will Doherty sit? I think we can keep our support with Cicilline, he’s already spent two years supporting the environment.
Instead of canned website statements, let’s look at the 2nd District’s first debate. The environment was finally addressed with this interesting question (start at 51:00). Arlene Violet asks:
Mr. Riley, on your website you say entitlements should be paid for by ‘revenue ideas’ not taxes to shore up the safety net. Specifically, what ‘revenue ideas’ or projects would you implement.
To which Riley responds:
The revenue ideas I identified in the Riley plan have to do with the huge amount of federal lands that we own. As citizens we have assets, and we have liabilities. That is how you would look at the balance sheet of America…you and I, and everyone in this room, has a share in the land. Under these lands are a vast quantity of gas, oil, whatever, rare minerals, rare earth minerals, those kinds of things, which are laying fallow. We’re not using them. We’re not selling them. We’re not lending out royalty rights. Not doing leasing rights. That revenue is not coming in. That should be coming in to help pay down those areas like entitlements where we have underfunded them. Why do we always assume that we gotta to go and tax the richest guy we see? Why don’t we actually utilize our balance sheet and bring dollars in for everyone and pay down the problems?
I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. Langevin, after the question is changed to coal and fracturing, returns:
I don’t believe there is such a thing as clean coal. Coal is a dirty fossil fuel and we have to get ourselves off our dependence on fossil fuels in general. In the short run I think we should explore and use utilize all of our energy resources… The real future of controlling our energy costs is developing alternative energy sources, whether it’s winds, solar or biofuels, and by the way, that’s a real jobs opportunity for Rhode Island. We could be the first state in the country to have a first, functioning wind farm off our coast. Those wind turbines would be built in Quonset-Davisville, in my district… If we are the first, we’ll be a hub for building these up and down the east coast and that’s real jobs for Rhode Island.
Langevin gives the best answer of the night. Clean coal is a myth! Build wind turbines at Quonset Point. Let’s get Block Island off diesel generators. Sounds better than leasing the Everglades.
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