The Seeds for Our Victory in 2023 — Planted in That Day 2013

Photo of founding members of Fossil Free California, standing behind the large concrete CalPERS building sign, holding up the individual letters that spell out, "DIVEST."

What has kept us so committed to Fossil Free California since these early years? A sense of the urgency of climate change propelled our growth, even while we were  a small, wholly volunteer organization. We also had early success: in 2015 we were part of the coalition that helped pass Senate Bill 185, mandating divestment from thermal coal companies by both CalPERS and CalSTRS.

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Next step for SB 185: contact your Assembly Member

Following passage by the California Senate, the coal divestment bill (SB 185) is now being considered by the California Assembly. The first hurdle is the Committee on Public Employees, Retirement, and Social Security, which will vote next Wednesday morning, June 24, whether to send SB 185 to the floor of the Assembly. The bill would ban investments in thermal coal…

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Teachers' unions support divestment

by Carlos Davidson California, famous worldwide for its leadership on climate change, is making big news in fossil fuel divestment, and it is doing it with some surprising union support. The California Senate recently approved a bill calling on its two massive public employee pension funds to divest their holdings in coal companies. Two unions representing…

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Senate to vote on SB 185 coal divestment

by Janet Cox The bill in the California State Senate requiring CalPERS and CalSTRS to divest from coal companies, SB 185, along with the other bills in this year’s climate package, will be voted on by the full Senate on Wednesday morning, June 3, most likely between 10 am and noon. This will be the…

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California Democrats support divestment

On May 17, at their annual convention, California Democrats endorsed a resolution urging CalPERS, CalSTRS, the University of California and California State University endowments, and the University of California Retirement Plan to divest from coal, oil, and gas companies controlling the most unexploited reserves of fossil fuels. The resolution was endorsed by 20 Democratic county committees. In the…

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Why coal divestment is important

Our goal at Fossil Free California is to reduce investments in all fossil fuels—coal, oil, and gas—and to publicize their destructive effects. But some institutions, resistant to total divestment, are willing to consider divesting only from coal. Is that a position we can support? Emphatically yes! A giant step Divesting from coal is a giant step…

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Divest! Start with coal!

by Janet Cox Help us strip dirty coal money from California pension funds. Help us pass Senate Bill 185! Kevin de León, President pro Tem of the California State Senate, has offered the divestment movement a tremendous gift. With SB 185, he has proposed a law that could become the first divestment legislation passed by…

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