Local governments considering ending business with fossil fuel companies.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Portland’s local governments are considering ending business with fossil fuel companies.
The Board of County Commissioners will vote on a divestment resolution Thursday morning, Sept. 24, followed by a City Council vote in the afternoon. The measures would pledge both governments to stop buying interests in 200 of the world’s oil, gas and coal companies with the largest fossil fuel reserves, as demanded by the divestment movement. No Oregon-based companies are on the list.
The movement is designed to stigmatize fossil fuel companies and highlight their role in contributing to climate change, much like the 1980s campaign to divest from South African companies pressured that regime to abandon its racist apartheid system.
(SOURCE: Portland Tribune)
Local environmental groups celebrated the decision.
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