{"id":8688,"date":"2014-05-07T06:26:08","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T10:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=8688"},"modified":"2014-05-07T06:29:43","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T10:29:43","slug":"stanford-beats-harvard-divests-from-coal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/stanford-beats-harvard-divests-from-coal.html","title":{"rendered":"Stanford beats Harvard; divests from coal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nIn the first big win for\r\n\r\nthe fossil fuel divestment campaign<\/a>,\r\nStanford just did what campaign-founder Harvard has not yet:\r\nannounced it would divest from coal-mining companies.\r\n

\r\nHere’s Stanford’s PR dated today, 7 May 2014,\r\n\r\nStanford to divest from coal companies<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nActing on a recommendation of Stanford’s Advisory Panel on Investment\r\nResponsibility and Licensing, the Board of Trustees announced that\r\nStanford will not make direct investments in coal mining companies. The\r\nmove reflects the availability of alternate energy sources with lower\r\ngreenhouse gas emissions than coal.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nWho is this Advisory Panel?\r\n

\r\n

\r\nIn taking the action, the trustees endorsed the recommendation of\r\nthe university’s Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and\r\nLicensing (APIRL). This panel, which includes representatives of\r\nstudents, faculty, staff and alumni, conducted an extensive review\r\nover the last several months of the social and environmental\r\nimplications of investment in fossil fuel companies.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nMaybe the unelected VSU Foundation\r\nwill listen to the newly-appointed\r\n\r\nspecial committee on sustainability<\/a>.\r\nImagine the VSU Foundation Chairman making a statement like this,\r\nor VSU’s President making it for him:\r\n

\r\n

\r\n“Stanford has a responsibility as a global citizen to promote\r\nsustainability for our planet, and we work intensively to do so\r\nthrough our research, our educational programs and our campus\r\noperations,” said Stanford President John Hennessy. “The\r\nuniversity’s review has concluded that coal is one of the most\r\ncarbon-intensive methods of energy generation and that other sources\r\ncan be readily substituted for it. Moving away from coal in the\r\ninvestment context is a small, but constructive, step while work\r\ncontinues, at Stanford and elsewhere, to develop broadly viable\r\nsustainable energy solutions for the future.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nLike at VSU<\/a> (and at lagging Harvard),\r\nit was students who started the process at Stanford:\r\n

\r\n

\r\n“Fossil Free Stanford catalyzed an important discussion, and the\r\nuniversity has pursued a careful, research-based evaluation of the\r\nissues,” said Steven A. Denning, chairman of the Stanford Board of\r\nTrustees. “We believe this action provides leadership on a critical\r\nmatter facing our world and is an appropriate application of the\r\nuniversity’s investment responsibility policy.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“We are proud that our university is responding to student calls for\r\naction on climate by demonstrating leadership,” the Fossil Free\r\nStanford group said in a statement. “Stanford’s commitment to coal\r\ndivestment is a major victory for the climate movement and for our\r\ngeneration.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nOf course, coal is hardly the only problem.\r\nSo-called “natural” gas, which is mostly fracked methane these days,\r\n\r\nis far more dangerous for climate stability<\/a> than CO2 from coal\r\nand it leaks from the wells (up to 1,000 times EPA estimates<\/a>),\r\nfrom\r\n\r\npipelines<\/a>, and from end users, far\r\nmore than the fracked methane industry wants to admit.\r\n

\r\nStanford realizes coal is not the only culprit, as\r\nMichael Wines wrote for the New York Times 6 May 2014,\r\n\r\nStanford to Purge $18 Billion Endowment of Coal Stock<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nOther fossil fuels did not meet some of those criteria, but\r\n“this is not the ending point. It’s a process,” she\r\nsaid. “We’re a research institute, and as the technology\r\ndevelops to make other forms of alternative energy sources\r\navailable, we will continue to review and make decisions about\r\nthings we should not be invested in. Don’t interpret this as a pass\r\non other things.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThat’s a weak position, since \r\nresearch at Stanford<\/a> already established that sun, wind, and water\r\ncan power each U.S. state and the world.\r\nMaybe Stanford and Harvard and VSU and anybody else who owns fossil fuel\r\ncompany stock should read up on\r\n\r\nhow quickly solar power is taking over<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the first big win for the fossil fuel divestment campaign, Stanford just did what campaign-founder Harvard has not yet: announced it would divest from coal-mining companies. Here’s Stanford’s PR dated today, 7 May 2014, Stanford to divest from coal companies, Acting on a recommendation of Stanford’s Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Licensing, the […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[47,141,216,15,6124,6687,4468,289,24],"tags":[8719,8745,8753,1003,8705,8701,1300,8702,620,12,7,1884,562,6076,8758,8714,1582,6,8743],"class_list":["post-8688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-co2","category-coal","category-education","category-natural-gas-2","category-pipeline-2","category-save","category-science","category-solar","tag-climate-change","tag-co2","tag-coal","tag-divestment","tag-education","tag-georgia","tag-harvard","tag-lake","tag-leak","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-methane","tag-natural-gas","tag-pipeline","tag-science","tag-solar","tag-stanford","tag-valdosta","tag-vsu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-2g8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8688"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8694,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8688\/revisions\/8694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}