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 first divestment bill passed in a state legislature. Because CalPERS and CalSTRS, the two largest public pension funds in the nation, are so influential, we believe that SB 185 is critical to the strength of the global divestment movement going into the climate talks in Paris later this year.

Please call or email your senators before June 3 and ask them to support SB 185. If you don’t know who your senator is, click here and enter your address to find contact information. Ask your friends to do the same! And if you can join us in the Senate gallery on Wednesday morning, please do! We’ll have stickers for supporters to wear…but most important, this will be a big moment for California’s continuing climate leadership.

After the bill passes the Senate it will move to the Assembly, where divestment’s deep-pockets opposition is determined to kill it.  (So far the Western States Petroleum Association, the Chamber of Commerce, and the California Business Properties Association are on record against.) So we’ll be coming back with requests for more calls and letters of support as the legislation moves through Assembly committees in June and July. Action by the full Assembly is expected in late August or early September.

Thanks to everyone for your persistence and determination as we work together for a green economy and a livable planet!

(And in addition to contacting your own senator, don’t forget to like SB185’s Facebook page and sign this petition addressed to the State Senate as a whole.)

Photo: Some rights reserved, Wikimedia/Asilvero