California lawmakers are considering two bills that would force the state’s pension systems to liquidate the parts of their investments that may be related to fossil fuels and divest from banks that work with gun manufacturers. Regardless of which side of the political aisle the calls for politically driven pension system divestment come from, these would be bad policies for taxpayers, workers, and retirees.
The California Public Employee’s Retirement System, CalPERS, the nation’s largest pension system, and the California State Teacher Retirement System, CalSTRS, have over $700 billion in assets. Politicizing and legislating their investment strategies is a bad idea. In
