The California Pension Chief Fighting Fossil Fuel Divestment
The head investment officer of California’s teachers’ pension fund has fought efforts to divest the fund from fossil fuels — while personally trading more than $1 million in oil- and gas-related stocks.
For over a decade, climate activists have urged the giant California teachers’ pension fund to divest from fossil fuels. Scott Chan, the fund’s chief investment officer, has vocally opposed these efforts while personally benefiting from fossil fuel stocks. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
The top investment officer of the nation’s largest teachers’ pension fund actively dissuaded state workers from divesting from underperforming and ecologically devastating fossil fuel investments — then went on to buy and sell more than $1 million in oil and gas stocks, state records obtained by the Lever show.
Scott Chan, the chief investment officer for the one-million-member, $390 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), began trading fossil fuel stocks in 2023 — the year after he told the teachers that divesting from the sector could potentially result in a $20 billion loss for the fund.
CalSTRS, and the larger state workers’ pension fund, often acts as a bellwether for other state pension funds. If the teachers’ fund had divested from fossil fuels, it could have signaled that the sector is not a reliable investment — and affected the stocks Chan subsequently invested in.
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