The New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS) comptroller recently announced a new initiative to divest public funds entirely from fossil fuels by 2020. It’s a bold idea. But unfortunately, it’s also an ineffective and wildly costly one that the members of the city’s pension fund and taxpayers will be left to pick up the tab for.
It’s one thing to turn your back on the financial returns from a booming domestic oil and gas industry that has taken the United States from a major net importer to a nearly independent export powerhouse in less than a decade. It’s quite another to do so when the retirees whose money you’re gambling with don’t support it – and, in many cases, don’t know it’s happening.
