The Center for Industrial Progress, lead by President Alex Epstein, has written and published a letter addressing the concerns of divestment on university campuses across the country. Environmental groups have pressured university administrations to divest any endowments they may have with the fossil fuel industry.
As a response, dozens of scientists, physicists, professors, policy experts, and others have joined together to encourage administrations to educate their students on the benefits of our natural resources and to “reject these calls as an attempt to silence legitimate debate about our energy and environmental future.”
CFACT students across the country have stood in support with these co-signers, delivering the letter to their university administration buildings. Vanderbilt, Syracuse University, Vassar College, and Tulane have all participated in sending a message to university officials that despite the pressure from radical environmental groups, these institutions are about ”education- not indoctrination.”
The letter notes, “the divestment movement refuses to grapple with, let alone educate students about, the staggering, and arguably irreplaceable, benefits we derive from that industry.” Co-signers of the letter, including a Nobel Laureate, “passionately believe that the economic and environmental benefits of fossil fuels far outweigh the hazards, and that it is not a “necessary evil” but a moral imperative to make use of the most productive, life-giving energy sources available to us at any point in time.”
Instead of these calls for divestment, the signatories note that education should form the core of addressing any energy issues, as students today aren’t even taught some of the most basic facts, and instead, are “encouraged to take strong policy positions on the basis of extremely speculative predictions by individuals and institutions who falsely claim to represent the conclusions of all informed scientists.”
Tulane student, Emily Johnson, delivers the anti-divestment letter
CFACT is proud to join these efforts in educating college students about the importance of natural resources and the value they hold in maintaining a productive society.
There will be more letters delivered as the semester continues.
If you would like to get involved and deliver the letter to your university, contact [email protected] for more information.
