To the Editor:

New York State employees and retirees probably wish their pension funds were invested in a sound as well as a sustainable manner. State employees, and others, can now demand that New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli divest from fossil fuels and actually seek a better rate of return.

Energy Exchange Traded Funds performed poorly over the last seven years but this past year, renewable energy bested fossil fuels. In the last three months, a period of sharp market and oil price corrections, renewables trounced both fossil fuels and the S&P 500. Even Exxonmobil lost over 3 percent of its value in the last five years.

Renewable energy provides a better rate of return and helps mitigate climate change, so divest from fossil fuels now.

Activists from 350.org, an advocacy group combating climate change, hired an investment firm to calculate how the state pension fund would have fared if it had divested when first requested. The answer was it would be worth a “cool” (pun intended) $5 billion more and will grow in the future.

The state is planning to divest almost $400 billion and Governor Andrew Cuomo states he is working with the state comptroller to further this effort ... .

There are sound reasons to divest from fossil fuels and to re-invest in renewable energies, efficiency, and conservation. Click here to learn how you can to divest from fossil fuels: https://gofossilfree.org/usa/your-roadmap-to-personal-divestment/.

Click here by Feb. 27 to tell the NY State Comptroller to divest from fossil fuels: https://gofossilfree.org/ny/divest-ny-sandy5/.

Robert Connors

Canaan, New York

Community Advocates

For Sustainable Energy