Fossil fuel divestment crashes and burns in Vermont(DOH!)

hotair.com ^ | 2/10/2017 | Jazz Shaw

[rktman]

The fossil fuel divestment boom has turned into a serious bust. Most recently we saw this at the University of Denver where the administration determined that the future health of their endowment was worth far more than any political points scored through satisfying the demands of some environmentalist students. We’ve seen this in a number of other schools but the trend is continuing in areas outside the academic realm. Even state governments have been forced by activists to take a look at the possibility of divestment. This most recently happened in Vermont where the state pension plan was considering similar demands.

Much as in universities around the country, the results were pretty much the same. (Divestment Facts)

A new report conducted by an independent consulting firm for the state of Vermont confirms what economists, pension fund managers and academics have long said about fossil fuel divestment: it’s costly, hurts pension fund returns, and has no tangible impact on climate change.

[rktman]

Ecowanker losers. Again.

[Vince Ferrer]

it’s costly, hurts pension fund returns, and has no tangible impact on climate change.

But the smugness they get from virtue signaling outweighs all that.

[cicero2k]

A new report conducted by an independent consulting firm for the state of Vermont confirms what economists, pension fund managers and academics have long said about fossil fuel divestment: it’s costly, hurts pension fund returns, and has no tangible impact on climate change.

Sounds like advice they would have received here.

But they felt smug for a while.

[Enterprise]

There’s going to be deluges of dollars flowing soon as energy exploration and production ramps up. Divest at your own risk morons.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Quite a few years ago the news media was playing up Vermont’s use of firewood for heat. Nothing bad was said about it. Wonder how they feel now with all the wood smoke in the air.

I went through Kentucky about the same time and every house had a pile of COAL for winter heat.
Where I was born, on the High Plains, everyone there used coal for heat as there was not a tree for miles.

Where I now live, everyone fifty years ago used to use firewood and you could smell it on all the kids at the local school.
Today most use electric, natural gas and propane with wood for backup. In the BIG ICE STORM a few years ago, those on electric suffered. We were just fine.

[SVTCobra03]

We are on electric and during our BIG ICE STORM our generator kicked in and kept us warm and cozy. YMMV.

[glaseatr]

I can see it now. "We didn't get the expected returns on our pension investments. So we are now asking the state to help offset those loses."

Never bringing up the fact that they screwed up in the first place.

[rlmorel]

I love the state. It is absolutely beautiful up there, you can see why they call it the Green Mountain State. It is lovely.

But there are some absolute liberal loons up there running the state. My wife and I stayed at a farm near Mount Ascutney that had a room that served as a bed and breakfast (here is me relaxing)

The woman who ran the farm was installing solar power panels, so I asked her. She had a lot of uncomplimentary things to say about the people who set energy policy in the state, particularly the mandate on renewable power. She laughed when she said they were nearly unhinged, since they couldn't meet their goals (and never will) that they had to buy power from Canada that was generated by a nuclear plant.

I must admit, I found a lot of humor in that. Stupid liberals. I read something that said for them to meet their wind power goals, there were not enough miles of mountain ridges in the state to install them on.

Absolute liberal stupidity. They cut off the branch they were sitting on.

[Doc91678]

So how much fossil fuel did you use to generate that electricity you used while services were down?

[SVTCobra03]

That is irrelevant. Fossil fuel is abundant and burning wood is a hassle.

[Doc91678]

So coal and wood to heat is irrelevant at home, but burning fossil fuel at the generator station supplying electricity is not?