Macalester College Divests From Oil and Gas | Inside Higher Ed

Macalester College announced Monday it would divest all publicly traded oil and gas assets, including those with Enbridge Inc., the natural gas company behind the Line 3 oil pipeline project, KSTP reported. Students had been pushing for divestment in protest of the pipeline, which would run from the tar sands region in Canada to the western tip of Lake Superior near the Minnesota-Wisconsin border, according to Minnesota Public Radio.

The private college in Saint Paul also adopted a policy prohibiting future investments that are entirely in oil and gas companies, but not necessarily investments in portfolios that include oil and gas.

“The Board believes it is important for the community to know that there will be underlying investments held by fund managers that are in oil and gas companies, as many of our fund managers hold portfolios that are broadly representative of the stock market, which would be inclusive of oil and gas,” college officials wrote in a press release. “This resolution does not provide direction to divest of all oil and gas assets. For example, a diversified mutual fund that holds interests in oil and gas companies as part of its portfolio would not be subject to this policy, since it is not possible to separate out particular investments in such funds.”