Skip to main content

To: President Ricardo Romo

Immediately Divest the University of Texas at San Antonio from the Fossil Fuel Industry

We, the students of the University of Texas at San Antonio, are integral parts of a public institution that ought to be looking out for the public good—in line with city and state governments, religious institutions, charity organizations, and non-profit organizations. The majority of these institutions invest money in stocks and bonds, and have a responsibility to both divest from an industry that is willingly destroying our future and reinvest those funds in ethical solutions to climate change that are both renewable and sustainable—the notion of “social ecology.” Even as extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy, floods, droughts and fires threaten to overwhelm local budgets; federal inaction to solve this crisis is all but stalled. The extraction, transport, processing, and dependency of fossil fuels has contributed to environmental degradation, human rights violations, and an unsustainable economic model that is driven by profits rather than ethics or regards to the ultimate resource—our natural environment.
We demand that the University of Texas at San Antonio invest significantly in sustainable sources of energy as part of a plan to rapidly transition our nation from fossil fuels. These efforts should be coupled with resources to help our cities, states, and industries prepare for the damage that climate change is already bringing. (The $50 billion Sandy relief package and the drought's impacts on food prices are just two painful reminders that the cost of inaction is enormous, and untenable.) Confronting climate change also happens to be our best opportunity to create the broad-based economic revitalization that current policies have largely failed to achieve for the average American citizen. This is not simply an empty trope of idealistic environmentalists; it is the truth.

Why is this important?

Oil, "Fracking", and the Environment
In the State of Texas, there is irrefutable evidence of innumerable incidents revealing the blatant disregard for human and non-human life committed by many multinational corporations such as Valero Energy Corporation, Shell Global, and British Petroleum (BP). Currently, Valero Energy persists in the operation of its refinery in Manchester, Texas on the Houston Ship Channel, releasing noxious chemicals into the air that affect the entire community’s health and safety. Shell Global is responsible for a spill this April from a rupture in its West Columbia pipeline that leaked 700 barrels of oil into a bayou 20 miles outside of Houston. Three years ago, BP, Transocean (operator), and Halliburton (contractor) were responsible for the Deepwater Horizon disaster that caused 4.9 million barrels to spill into the Gulf of Mexico; the aftermath of which continues to affect the local fishing and tourism industries, the health of its residents, and the overall ecology of the Gulf ecosystem. This catastrophic event is considered to be the largest and most devastating environmental disaster in American history.
In regards to our South Texas communities, the introduction of hydraulic fracturing, called "fracking", to extract natural gas from the Eagle Ford shale deposit, not only uses and creates millions of gallons of hazardous, chemical-infused waste water per well, but has been shown to contaminate the water supplies of residents living adjacent to the wells. New research and media coverage is emerging suggesting that our beloved aquifers (that we in San Antonio all depend on) are at risk from the fracking industry that is not required to buy permits for the unregulated use of our aquifer. The overuse and threat of contamination of South Texas' already dwindling water supply is in complete disregard of the long-term future of its citizens.

UT Permanent University Fund
For a long part of its history, the University of Texas system has been funded by the fossil fuel industry through the Permanent University Fund. During the sixties, it was common knowledge that tuitions were partially paid for by money from the fossil fuel industry. Today, the funds from the PUF have fallen below the radar and school tuitions are at record levels. The majority of students and alumni remain with massive debts because of their public educations. As students of UTSA we have the right to know who is profiting from the public lands owned by the University system, where and to whom these funds are allocated, and how these funds are spent, as guaranteed in the Constitution of the State of Texas. We demand transparency regarding all financial transactions involving the usage and leasing of public lands belonging to the University of Texas, the state, and its citizens. Furthermore, we are demanding that University of Texas at San Antonio cease handing over this traditionally PUBLIC university to PRIVATE interests, including Valero Energy and Shell Global, that prove time and time again to show no care for the health and safety of all living organisms and the environment that supports us. We have the solutions, but we won’t see any political progress on the issue until we can weaken the power of the fossil fuel industry. You, President Romo, can and must find a way - within this institution and the power of your office - to begin the process of divestment as an end to fossil fuel dependency in the state of Texas and our nation. Through divestment we will no longer foot the bill of increasing greenhouse gas pollution, so that fossil fuel executives can no longer get rich from the destabilization of our climate, and so fossil-free, renewable, sustainable, and safe energy can thrive in our evolving economy.
The bottom line is this: immediate divestment from the fossil fuel industry is the only moral choice for institutions like ours that care about the planet and its residents. Solving the climate crisis and various other social and environmental issues created by fossil fuels is the only practical choice for governments that care about their solvency.

University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX

Maps © Stamen; Data © OSM and contributors, ODbL

Updates

2014-01-24 16:15:32 -0500

100 signatures reached

2013-12-11 09:06:35 -0500

50 signatures reached