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Rockefeller to ditch oil, gas, holdings on ethical and economic grounds: criticises Exxon Mobil

Rockefeller Dumps Oil, Exxon Mobil Charity linked to the founder of Exxon Mobil’s precursor says it will ditch its oil and gas holdings. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-03-24/in-a-changing-climate-rockefeller-fund-dumps-oil-exxon-mobil-holdings  Alan NeuhauserMarch 24, 2016,Citing “morally reprehensible conduct on the part of Exxon Mobil,” the Rockefeller Family Foundation – whose namesake, John D. Rockefeller, founded Exxon’s precursor, Standard Oil – will dump its holdings in America’s largest oil conglomerate, plus coal and tar sands companies, the charity announced Wednesday.

The nonprofit pointed to both economics and ethics: Amid a huge surplus of oil and sluggish global demand, oil prices are in the middle of a 19-month slump, spurring hundreds of thousands of layoffsfrom the energy sector worldwide. Climate change, meanwhile, has created a moral imperative to decrease the planet’s reliance on fossil fuels like oil, the fund said.

“While the global community works to eliminate the use of fossil fuels, it makes little sense—financially or ethically—to continue holding investments in these companies,” the charity said in a statement. “We must keep most of the already discovered reserves in the ground if there is any hope for human and natural ecosystems to survive and thrive in the decades ahead.”

Exxon was the only company the charity singled-out by name. Last year, award-winning investigations by InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times reported that Exxon had known about global warming as early as 1977 and accounted for it in its financials, even as it emphasized to lawmakers and the public that the science was in doubt.

The New York Attorney General’s Office is investigating whether Exxon lied to investors, and the hashtag #ExxonKnew has become a mainstay on social media.

“The company worked since the 1980s to confuse the public about climate change’s march, while simultaneously spending millions to fortify its own infrastructure against climate change’s destructive consequences and track new exploration opportunities as the Arctic’s ice receded,” the fund said of Exxon. “As a matter of good governance, we cannot be associated with a company exhibiting such apparent contempt for the public interest.”

[ALSO: Exxon Mobil Under Investigation for Climate Change Denial]

There are also financial imperatives, especially in the firm’s decision to turn away from coal and the tar sands: While coal-fired electricity is the nation’s greatest source of greenhouse gas emissions, the sector has also been stricken by a rash of bankruptcies as power producers have switched from coal to cheap and cleaner-burning natural gas. Last week, Peabody Energy, the world’s largest coal producer, indicated it was on the brink of going under.

Likewise, extracting crude from the tar-sands – largely concentrated in western Canada – emits far more heat-trapping carbon than conventional oil and gas drilling. But the process is also far more expensive, and with both low oil prices and the Obama administration’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline’s northern stretch last year, companies have pulled out from the sector.

The Family Foundation’s announcement comes a year and a half after another Rockefeller charity, theRockefeller Brothers Fund, revealed it would eliminate $860 million it held in oil, coal and other fossil fuels.

“History moves on, as it must,” the Family Foundation said.

March 27, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, USA