On November 12th, representatives from Beyond Coal addressed the University of Illinois Board of Trustees with the most recent of many pleas for university investments to be diverted from coal to renewable energy. Laden with wit and relevant historical references, the organization's riveting speech was best when delivered by Beyond Coal's Director of Communications, Cary Shepherdd, but is sure to compel online readers, such as yourself, as well.
Watch the video here at 1:05
Address to The University of Illinois
Board of Trustees
Written and delivered
by Cary Shepherd
Good
afternoon ladies and gentlemen of the board, I’d like to thank you for allowing
me to be the 217th mustachioed liberal college student to steal another
five minutes of your lives at one of these meetings. My name is Cary Shepherd,
and I am the Director of Communications for the Urbana campus registered
student organization Beyond Coal. The purpose of our organization is to inform
the public about the coal industry and work with our University to adopt policies
that minimize our endorsement and use of coal as an energy source.
Today
I would like to talk to you about divesting our endowment funds from companies
heavily involved in the coal industry. This is not the first time that our
organization has spoken at one of your meetings, so I want to thank you for
your patience with us and willingness to discuss this important issue. Today
however, I will be addressing a new aspect of this issue. You have already
heard about coal’s carcinogenic properties and its propensity to accelerate
global warming in past presentations, so while we remain steadfast in our
assertion that this is the most important reason we must lead the charge
towards cleaner sources of energy, the focus of this brief is why coal is a financially poor investment for our
endowment. However, while finance will be the focus of this presentation, it is
important to note that coal is the most carbon intensive energy source, because
that will play an important role in the financial analysis I am about to
present.
As
you are well aware, the purpose of our university endowment is not to flip
stocks inside of a quarter. Our endowment is meant to financially safeguard our
University for generations to come. Nobody in our organization is saying that
coal is not profitable today or that we could stop using coal immediately as an
energy source. We are saying that we must look to the future and invest responsibly.
The
debate on energy is changing, and in a democracy, the debate matters. One month
ago, the Pentagon, yes the Pentagon, held a press conference in which Defense
Secretary Chuck Hagel released a report indicating that climate change poses an
immediate threat to national security, with increased threats from terrorism,
infectious disease, global poverty, and food shortages. If there was ever an
indication that the current administration may be politically positioning
itself to take aggressive action against climate change through regulation of
carbon emissions, this is it. This is that indication.
Now,
I had to make a few brief changes to this presentation because while I was
putting on the finishing touches, the New
York Times broke a story that the United States and China have been in
secret negotiations to sign a treaty that aggressively overhauls international
standards on carbon emissions. This happened three days ago. Once
again, coal is the most carbon-intensive energy source on the market today. China
is currently the world’s largest user of coal, and the United States is not far
behind. The coal market will not just shrink in the United States, it will
shrink internationally. We are at an important moment in history. Today is the
day that just because coal has been a reliable source of energy for over 100
years, we have no certainty that this will remain the case. And personally, I’d
like to see our endowment outlast the coal industry.
Again,
we acknowledge that the energy we use must be produced somehow, so logically
just because regulations of coal are increasing does not mean that it will
become financially unprofitable. However, this in combination with other rising
energy sources does indicate that. Coal’s claim to the throne of affordable energy
king is no longer certain into the future. While our organization does not
endorse the increased mining of natural gas through hydraulic fracturing, it is
clear to see that this industry is growing exponentially across North America.
All current financial indications point towards an energy industry squeeze of
coal by natural gas in the 21st century. Furthermore, the technology
to increase efficiency from nuclear and solar energy is advancing rapidly,
again eating away at the segment of the energy market that coal once occupied
comfortably.
I
am a history major, and one of the most important concepts I have learned at the
University of Illinois is how to use comparative history to understand the
causes of similar events over time. When our university was founded in 1867,
one of the largest energy sources in the country was oil. This had been the
case for over 100 years. But it was not oil from the ground, it was oil from
whales. Over the course of the following 50 years, increased competition from
new energy sources such as petroleum and the increased regulation of the
whaling industry drove that industry into the ground. Today, coal is being
crowded out of the market by new and more efficient energy sources, and the
regulations surrounding the extraction and burning of coal can be seen
tightening on a regular basis. So let me ask you, would you have advised the
University to invest in whaling companies in 1867? Would you advise investment
in coal today?
