[vox_mundi]

Rockefellers to switch investments to 'clean energy'
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29310475

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is joining a coalition of philanthropists pledging to rid themselves of more than $50 bn (£31 bn) in fossil fuel assets.

Rockefeller Brothers Fund director Stephen Heintz said the move to divest from fossil fuels would be in line with oil tycoon John D Rockefeller's wishes,

"We are quite convinced that if he were alive today, as an astute businessman looking out to the future, he would be moving out of fossil fuels and investing in clean, renewable energy," Mr Heintz said in a statement.

[ROCKMAN]

As I just commented to Ghung: Assuming the folks who are running the fund understand PO they know this is a great time to monetize the profits they made from those fossil fuel holdings. As long term investment I would dump any oil stocks I still had right now. And most know what I do for a living and thus why I would run from oil stocks like a scalded dog. LOL. By understanding PO they would also know that the dependence upon fossil fuels the country developed with the help of JD has the potential to continue the energy related profits as alternatives to those sources must be developed. IOW still making nice profits as a result of hydrocarbon based economies.

JD would make the same move if he were around today IMHO. Not for personal reasons...just good business.

[ennui2]

Exxon is currently running ads nonstop about how we need to educate the next generation of engineers. Nowhere in these ads is fossil fuels mentioned. You'd think they were Solyndria. Of course, we all know they desperately want these engineers so that they can better drill for the last drop of oil, but that it doesn't sell well to the public, especially the young, and so they have to thoroughly greenwash.

[GHung]

Yeah, Rock, It'll be interesting to watch, if/when other investors follow the 'smart money', what effect this dis-investment has on the oil patch, with some of the majors already doing a bit of dis-investing on their own. Economic Undertow's 'Triangle of Doom' may tighten up sooner than many of us expect. Will the Rockefellers and friends cause the next oil shock? Indeed, could this be one of the most brilliant acts of disaster capitalism in history?

[KaiserJeep]

The Rockefellers never had an original thought:




Understand this is a PR effort:

[ROCKMAN]

Ghung - Remember one has to be careful how they view any sell off of Big Oil stocks. The stock ownership change has no direct bearing on XOM income or drilling decisions. In fact lower stock value means smaller dividends which means they retain more capex for operations. But it might depreciate the value of those stock holdings if too much hits the market too fast. But also remember that Big Oil has viewed such downturns as buying opportunities not only for their own stock but other companies also. Remember that XOM is incapable of replacing produced reserves with the drill bit. They only way they can maintain (lets alone increase) their asset base is to acquire other companies. If for whatever reason there were a sudden slump in the price of oil stocks XOM et al would go into a feeding frenzy buying up smaller companies at a big discount. Which is exactly what they did when they acquired XTO. And now they are utilizing the XTO sub as a vehicle to make other acquisitions.

For all I know the upper management of XOM may be saying a prayer every day for a collapse of the oil equities. Remember they typically include a huge chunk of the acquisition cost in the form of their own stock. If prices crash across the board they are trading away their own stock which might initially be selling at a discount but then would increase in value after they made a reserve acquisition that they got at a big discount. Which is what entices the acquired company to do the deal.

[KaiserJeep]

I think I may have mentioned this before, but the demographics of energy stocks are well known. The largest single category of investor is institutional investors in Great Britain. The second largest block is institutional investors in the USA.

IOW, the true identity of "Big Oil" is your elderly retired relatives, and others living off of pensions and various retirement plans.

Now what is it that makes all you Greenies hate old people?

[ROCKMAN]

KJ - Always a good idea to remind folks of "the rest of the story". Such as the story about midwest farmers losing money because of the delay in the northern leg of Keystone XL. As a result Bakken oil is crowding them out of rail service and running their shipping costs up. And the irony: Willie Nelson, a long time supporter of farmers, is performing at an anti-Keystone rally.

Life just isn't as simplistic as many folks like to think. They get so enamored with single insures they can't see the entire picture. In fact, some become rather hostile when you force them to consider the totality of a system. Like a child that refuses to understand why he can't have ice cream for supper every night. A single issue: he wants ice cream so no other issues are important. Global warming is a serious issue. But it doesn't exist in a vacuum by itself. It's part of a complex system. And no complex system can be dealt with effectively without considering the whole of it IMHO. In my experiences to do otherwise almost always invites failure.

[Graeme]

Vox_mundi, Great thread. I saw the article this morning so you beat me to it. I was going to post it in the San Francisco and divestment thread. The FF industry is dying; don't they get it? More below:

Fifty foundations pledge to divest from fossil fuels

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')rganizers of the growing movement to persuade investors to divest from fossil fuels will announce a major milestone Monday, when more than 50 foundations, institutions and wealthy individuals who control at least $50 billion in assets will pledge to begin pulling their investments from fossil fuels, particularly coal and oil.

The announcement, a day after more than 300,000 climate activists descended on New York City for an unprecedented People's Climate March, is the latest sign that divestment is gaining steam. One of the foundations pledging to divest is the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, created by the descendents of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller; one of the institutions pledging is the World Council on Churches--which represents over 300 churches and 590 million people in 150 countries..

"The snowball is picking up speed very rapidly," said Ellen Dorsey, executive director of the Wallace Global Fund and the originator of the Divest-Invest initiative. "There's a new urgency imposed by the science. We have to orchestrate the end of the fossil fuel era in a very short time frame."

[JuanP]

I was coming to create a post on this and saw Vox beat me to it. This is a very interesting development. The original oil millionaires, the Rockefeller dinasty, is divesting from all fossil fuel investments, and investing in renewable energy instead.
This is a link to the actual Rockefeller Brothers Fund Divestment Statement: http://www.rbf.org/content/divestment-statement