To: City of Asheville

Divest Asheville from Fossil Fuels!

That the City of Asheville should immediately freeze any new investments in fossil fuels, and divest from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds within 2 years. That all retirement funds, pensions, benefit plans, insurance providers, and any other type of city-sponsored employee benefit be divested from the fossil fuel industry. That the City of Asheville further resolve to make Asheville a Fossil Free City and therefore support and encourage the development of alternative energy sources.

Why is this important?

The rapid pace of climate change has created a world in which we can no longer proceed with business as usual. The extreme corruption demonstrated by the fossil fuel industry is most evident in the Keystone XL pipeline project, which if approved by President Obama would tap into more potential carbon than we have ever had access to in the history of mankind. This would mean GAME OVER for the entire planet, as burning this amount of carbon would cause so much global warming that life as we know it would completely end. The only way to send a message to the fossil fuel industry is to change our financial relationship to them. As a city, we need to follow the lead of over 250 college campuses that are right now moving to divest themselves of all fossil fuel investments.

Asheville, NC

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