State Lawmakers Push Pensions to Divest Fossil Fuel Holdings

Stateline: Some state lawmakers are pushing public pension funds to dump stock in the fossil fuel companies they blame for climate change. But those in charge of the investments worry that a largely symbolic act will have a real-world impact on vulnerable retirees.

In California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Vermont, lawmakers considered bills this year that would have required public employee pension funds to divest their holdings in coal, oil, or both. The bills did not get much traction, even in those reliably blue states, and no state has yet followed the lead of the more than 20 universities and 30 cities that have divested.

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