Rockefeller heirs divest from fossil fuels
The family synonymous with oil is moving away from the fuel that made it famous. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (not to be confused with the Rockefeller Foundation) is reportedly pulling its money out of fossil fuel investments. John D. Rockefeller, the man behind Standard Oil, is in many ways the original oil baron.
The announcement comes just days after hundreds of thousands of people marched through the streets of New York in a climate march to support environmental causes.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is a philanthropic organization with some $860 million in funds, according to the New York Times. Its decision to pull its money from fossil fuels follows a movement started several years ago on college campuses. So far, about 180 institutions, including philanthropies and local governments, have made similar moves.
“It’s a symbolic move at best,” said Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Aaron Task. “This is how they made their money now they’re saying we don’t want to touch this dirty oil.”
Many of the organizations pulling their money are aware that their movements will be largely symbolic, though. Groups have pledged to divest more than $50 billion from portfolios with fossil fuel-related assets. Still, that outflow is unlikely to have an immediate impact on energy stocks.
“No matter what you think about climate change, we’re not weaning ourselves off of fossil fuels any time soon,” said Task.
The UN may be hoping to change that, though. Tuesday kicks off the next round of climate talks at the international organization. The last meeting in Copenhagen in 2009 drew 115 world leaders. This year, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon joined activists walking through the streets of New York ahead of the meeting.
Last week the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that August 2014 was the hottest on record. As far as oil, the latest report from the Energy Information Agency says that demand is moderating in key economies like China, India and Brazil. In OECD countries, demand has been slowly shrinking since it peaked in 2005.
“We’re saying to China and India hey you have to wean yourself off of fossil fuels and they’re saying wait a minute, when your economy was booming at the beginning of the 20th century no one was putting any restrictions on you,” said Task.
Consequently, the beginning of the 20th century was when Standard Oil was broken up as an illegal monopoly. It was during this divestment process that John D. Rockefeller became the world’s richest man. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund was created in 1940 by his children. The Rockefeller Foundation, on the other hand, was created an endowed by John D. Rockefeller himself.
