GU divestiture disturbing

Recently, the Gonzaga Student Body Association Senate voted for a resolution asking the university’s trustees to remove endowment investments from “carbon-intensive companies by 2020.” The list includes ExxonMobil, BP and others. Part of the perceived rationale is that this effort will “show fidelity to our Jesuit, Catholic, humanistic mission.”

As a 58-year-old practicing Catholic with over 35 years’ experience in the upstream oil and gas industry, I find the use of religion as partial justification for this divestiture particularly disturbing. I do not recall an Eleventh Commandment, “Thou shalt not drill”.

This environment narrative is particularly hypocritical given the fact that students have a carbon footprint, drive cars, consume petrochemical products, heat their campus with natural gas, etc. The energy grid, currently dominated by fossil fuels will change with time, reacting primarily to economic forces.

Although not a GU alum, I urge the trustees to reject this nonsense and simply make the best investment decisions for their endowment fund.

In the interest of consistency, perhaps the Gonzaga Environmental Organization and Fossil Free Gonzaga can petition the university’s athletic department to forgo private aircraft and require their beloved basketball teams to walk or ride bikes to away games.

Martin Spadinger

Spokane