Stanford U exiting coal investments

Stanford University has decided to purge its $18 billion endowment of stocks in coal companies, following pressures from students opposed to the use of fossil fuels.

From the article:

Stanford’s associate vice president for communications, Lisa Lapin, said the decision covers about 100 companies worldwide that derive the majority of their revenue from coal extraction. Not all of those companies are in the university’s investment portfolio, whose structure is private, she said. Over all, the university’s coal holdings are a small fraction of its endowment.

“But a small percentage is still a substantial amount of money,” she added. 

The trustees’ decision carries more symbolic than financial weight, but it is a major victory for a rapidly growing student-led divestment movement that is now active at roughly 300 universities. 

There may be more than a moral or ethical aspect to this. My former coworker and pretty good reporter Taylor Kuykendall at SNL Financial has tweeted lately that the market capitalization (total value of all stock in a company; share price times number of shares) of major coal companies has dropped drastically in the past few years.

It's easy to stand with God when Mammon approves.