Rockefeller oil heirs' fund to sell fossil-fuel investments

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, built with profits from Standard Oil Co., is selling investments in coal and tar sands producers in a move to pressure companies that are contributing to climate change.

The fund, founded in 1940 and based in New York City, on Monday joined a group of 800 institutions and individuals announcing they will divest from fossil-fuel companies. Total funds making that pledge reached $50 billion this week.

"We are immediately divesting from coal and tar sands, the most carbon intensive fuels," Stephen Heintz, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, said. Given the source of the fortune, "it's a very important signal to the market."

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which has assets of $860 million and is separate from the larger Rockefeller Foundation, will assess how to cut other fossil fuel investments while boosting renewable energy companies, he said.

Students and activist investors are backing the divestment effort spearheaded by the environmental group 350.org to persuade foundations, corporations, universities, and others to divest from the 200 companies with the largest share of coal and oil resources, including Exxon Mobil Corp. and India Coal Ltd. Former Vice President Al Gore is to present the latest divestment totals at the U.N. Climate Summit on Tuesday.

Heintz said John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil more than a century ago, was developing cutting-edge fuels when he began investing in oil production at the end of the 19th century to displace whale oil.

"If he were alive today, as an astute businessman looking out to the future, he would be moving out of fossil fuels and investing in clean, renewable energy," Heintz said.

The Rockefeller family fund will keep shares of Exxon, the main successor to Standard Oil after the government-ordered breakup, in part to press the oil and gas producer to account for its carbon assets, he said.

South African cleric Desmond Tutu, who helped spur calls for divestment that led to the end of apartheid in his home nation in the 1980s, endorsed the divestment drive.

"Climate change has become the human-rights challenge of our time," Tutu told advocates via video message. "We can no longer continue feeding our addiction to fossil fuels as if there is no tomorrow, for there will be no tomorrow."

Asked about Exxon being targeted by the divestment effort, a company spokesman referred to a report released this year.