Divest Oregon350 Eugene is a member of the Divest Oregon campaign, a statewide grassroots coalition of individuals and 80+ organizations representing unions with PERS members, racial and climate justice groups, youth leaders, and faith communities. Divest Oregon is part of a national movement.
Our goal is to call the Oregon State Treasury to account for its funding of climate devastation rather than prudent investing in a sustainable future. It’s high time we stop paying the fossil fuel industry to inflict heat domes, wildfires, droughts and floods on us! History: |
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This campaign began in the late summer of 2020 with a public pressure campaign to demand that State Treasurer Tobias Reed and the Oregon Investment Council (the agency responsible for Oregon’s investment decisions) publish the state’s investment holdings (over $130 billion, $90 billion PERS alone) and begin divesting from fossil fuel companies. The pressure campaign had an effect, but not the one we wanted. Treasurer Read found the issue too hot for his liking, so he dumped the whole issue into the lap of the legislature. This brings us to Divest Oregon’s current focus of energy, the Treasury Transparency Bill.
The Treasury Transparency Bill:
The first step in divestment is knowing what investments we currently hold. It took four months and a concerted email and phone banking campaign to finally get the information from the Treasurer and the Oregon Investment Council in December 2020. It shouldn’t be this hard to learn what our money supports.
Divest Oregon leaders spoke with Rep. Pham from the Portland area who co-sponsored this bill for the short 2022 session along with Rep. Holvey from the Eugene area (!) and Sen. Golden from Southern Oregon. Read their Op-Ed in the Oregonian about the bill.
Divest Oregon leaders spoke with Rep. Pham from the Portland area who co-sponsored this bill for the short 2022 session along with Rep. Holvey from the Eugene area (!) and Sen. Golden from Southern Oregon. Read their Op-Ed in the Oregonian about the bill.