{"id":1917219,"date":"2023-04-20T12:56:42","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T16:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/californias-retirement-fund-once-pushed-for-federal-esg-rules-now-they-say-fossil-fuel-divestment-hurts-retirees\/"},"modified":"2023-04-20T12:57:15","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T16:57:15","slug":"californias-retirement-fund-once-pushed-for-federal-esg-rules-now-they-say-fossil-fuel-divestment-hurts-retirees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/californias-retirement-fund-once-pushed-for-federal-esg-rules-now-they-say-fossil-fuel-divestment-hurts-retirees\/","title":{"rendered":"California\u2019s Retirement Fund Once Pushed For Federal ESG Rules. Now They Say Fossil Fuel Divestment Hurts Retirees."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcalifornias-retirement-fund-once-pushed-for-federal-esg-rules-now-they-say-fossil-fuel-divestment-hurts-retirees%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1917219&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/dailywire.com\/topic\/california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California<\/a> Public Employees\u2019 Retirement System (CalPERS) recently opposed legislation that would require <a href=\"http:\/\/dailywire.com\/topic\/stock-market\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">divestment<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/dailywire.com\/topic\/oil-and-gas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fossil fuel<\/a> companies despite the agency\u2019s support of the environmental, social, and corporate governance movement, also known as <a href=\"http:\/\/dailywire.com\/topic\/esg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ESG<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A bill submitted earlier this year by three California Democrats <a href=\"https:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB252\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">asserts<\/a> that \u201cefforts to obstruct climate stabilization policies\u201d from fossil fuel companies are \u201cincompatible\u201d with the state\u2019s climate policies. Board members for CalPERS voted to <a href=\"https:\/\/news.calpers.ca.gov\/why-were-opposing-divestment-in-senate-bill-252\/?utm_source=newsletter&#038;utm_medium=email&#038;utm_content=Learn%20why%20we%20oppose%20SB%20252&#038;utm_campaign=membernews-04-2023-A\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recommend<\/a> against the passage of the bill, saying divestment would \u201ccreate a ripple effect on our ability to produce the investment returns needed to fulfill our members\u2019 retirement promises\u201d and have little impact on fossil fuel companies\u2019 operations, thereby doing \u201cnothing to reduce greenhouse emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the opposition to fossil fuel divestment, a hallmark of ESG investment proposals, CalPERS was one of the entities which prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission to consider <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/rules\/proposed\/2022\/33-11042.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">rules<\/a> mandating that companies include climate-related information, such as carbon emissions levels and climate-related risks, in their financial statements and annual reports.<\/p>\n<p>Skeptics of the ESG movement assert that the investment philosophy intermixes political and social causes favored by executives, such as reducing carbon emissions or diversifying company leadership, in a manner that compromises or distracts from profitability. CalPERS currently <a href=\"https:\/\/news.calpers.ca.gov\/esg-basics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">maintains<\/a> an ESG framework to \u201cassess potential risks to our investments,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.calpers.ca.gov\/docs\/board-agendas\/201812\/invest\/item08a-01_a.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">divested<\/a> from thermal coal five years ago, and more recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.calpers.ca.gov\/page\/investments\/sustainable-investments-program\/climate-change\/united-nations-net-zero-asset-owner-alliance-partnership\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">joined<\/a> the United Nations Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance to mitigate rises in global temperatures by 2050.<\/p>\n<p>1792 Exchange President Paul Fitzpatrick said in an interview with The Daily Wire that ESG is \u201cthe marriage of Wall Street\u2019s desire to make more money and the Left\u2019s desire to push unpopular policy through corporations.\u201d He noted that climate objectives, and social agendas, such as diversity efforts and support of LGBTQ-related causes, do not affect \u201cwhether a company produces a good product or is well-governed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fitzpatrick also noted the lackluster <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/virtue-signaling-isnt-free-how-woke-investing-fell-apart-once-the-economy-got-bad\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">performance<\/a> of ESG funds last year as technology firms, which ESG managers tend to favor because of their emphasis on corporate social responsibility, suffered in the stock market, while energy companies, which ESG managers tend to dislike because of carbon emissions associated with the sector, witnessed outsized returns. CalPERS <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.org\/data-visualization\/2022-investment-results-for-state-pension-plans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">witnessed<\/a> a 6.1% loss last year, falling below the median of other state retirement programs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause of ESG funds\u2019 bias against fossil fuels and support of radical corporate goals to get portfolios to net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050, these funds underweight energy stocks and overweight tech. For individuals who are retired or retiring soon, that has a big impact on their portfolios and retirement security,\u201d Fitzpatrick continued. \u201cEspecially going into a recession, it\u2019s not wise to divest from fossil fuels and lower returns for retirees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CalPERS is one of several major investment entities to admit in recent months that fossil fuel divestment is harmful to returns: Officials from the Government Pension Fund Global in Norway, one of the nation\u2019s two sovereign wealth funds, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/norwegian-sovereign-wealth-fund-sheds-billions-amid-fossil-fuel-avoidance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">acknowledged<\/a> they had missed the chance to benefit from outsized returns in the energy sector last year, while executives from Harvard Management Company, which manages the elite university\u2019s endowment, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/harvard-university-endowment-loses-2-3-billion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">disclosed<\/a> that its losses were attributable to fossil fuel divestment efforts even as the organization remains \u201cproud to be deeply engaged in the issue of sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The California Public Employees\u2019 Retirement System (CalPERS) recently opposed legislation that would require divestment from fossil fuel companies despite the agency\u2019s support of the environmental, social, and corporate governance movement, also known as ESG. A bill submitted earlier this year by three California Democrats asserts that \u201cefforts to obstruct climate stabilization policies\u201d from fossil fuel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":1917220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[4036,5978,7003,3974,13153,6783,4338,16923,7697,11970,7620,3807],"class_list":["post-1917219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-californias","tag-divestment","tag-esg","tag-federal","tag-fossil","tag-fuel","tag-fund","tag-hurts","tag-pushed","tag-retirees","tag-retirement","tag-rules"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1917219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1917220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}