CalPERS Member Petition for Divestment

California state workers! Did you know that our CalPERS pensions are invested in fossil fuel companies like Exxon and Chevron–the same companies that are driving climate change, poisoning California communities, and building pipelines on indigenous land? Please take a minute to sign this letter to our labor representative on the CalPERS board, asking them to protect our pensions and our planet by getting our money out of the fossil fuel industry!

Letter Text:

Dear Theresa Taylor, David Miller, Jose Luis Pacheco, Ramón Rubalcava, Yvonne Walker, and Mullissa Willette,

We are California state workers and union members with CalPERS pensions. We are disturbed that our pensions remain invested in the fossil fuel industry– an industry that is financially volatile, poisons the communities we live in and serve, lies to the public, and drives global climate change. We are writing to urge you, as our union representatives on the CalPERS Board, to get our money out of fossil fuels as soon as possible.

In California, we've all felt the impacts of climate change in recent years, from wildfires to floods to extreme heat. Events like floods and extreme heat create unsafe working conditions for state employees, and pull the state's resources away from funding good jobs and benefits for public sector workers. We work for the health and well-being of California communities, but many of the communities we serve are impacted by toxins from fossil fuel infrastructure like oil wells and fracking sites. The science is clear that we need to transition off fossil fuels immediately to avoid the worst impacts of climate change on California; we are disturbed that our pensions are still invested in the same companies that are fueling climate change.

Fossil fuel investments also put our pensions at risk. The fossil fuel industry is facing more and more political backlash, competition from clean energy sources, and accountability for the harm it has caused (including our own state's lawsuits against top fossil fuel companies for lying to the public about climate change and plastics). Already, fossil fuel investments have had lower returns than other stocks. A University of Waterloo study found that between 2012 and 2022 CalPERS and CalSTRS would have gained close to $10 billion dollars collectively if they had divested from fossil fuels. Reports by financial firms BlackRock and Meketa have also found that pension funds come out ahead when they divest from fossil fuels.

In the future, this effect is likely to accelerate as clean energy sources come online and fossil fuel assets become “stranded.”  Stranded assets are fossil fuels that cannot be burned and fossil fuel infrastructure (like pipelines, power plants, drilling operations) that can no longer be used, negatively affecting the value of oil and gas stocks. This is why, when the University of California divested its endowment and employee pension fund, it stated, “We believe hanging on to fossil fuel assets is a financial risk.” As workers, we are counting on our pensions to be there for us when we retire, and we don't want them invested in a dying industry.

The labor movement has a long history of using boycott and divestment campaigns to win social change–from Cesar Chavez' grape boycott to the South Africa divestment campaigns of the 1980s. We urge you to walk in this tradition of visionary leadership by committing to and implementing a plan for fossil fuel divestment today. We look forward to working with you to make this a reality.

Sincerely,

[YOUR SIGNATURE]