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The end of coal is near
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
Posted: September 6th, 2015
http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/The-end...
We are witnessing the end of an era. Coal is fast becoming the telegraph to renewable energys Internet. The fossil-fuel divestment movement, which began just three years ago, is having an impact. Institutional investors representing nearly $1 trillion of portfolio value, including Stanford University, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, have committed to divest from coal. In California, legislation passed Wednesday that would require several of the states largest pension funds to divest from coal as well. Coals contribution to global warming has led Pope Francis, Prince Charles and the Dalai Lama to call for a transition to clean energy. While coal remains Americas largest source of electricity generation, over the past six years coal-fired generation has declined from 52 to 34 percent of our electricity portfolio. Renewable energy, which made up just 12 percent of Californias generation in 2008, now provides more than 25 percent of the states power. California is on track to reach Gov. Jerry Browns goal of 50 percent renewable energy by 2030. As a result of this progress, there are now more Californians working in the solar industry than working for the states utilities. The United States now has twice as many solar industry employees as coal miners. Exporting our know-how to the world, which needs to get off coal too, will be our next big business. Now is indeed the time to divest our pension funds from coal, cut the cord from this piece of our past and hasten our transition to a clean energy future.
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