Ben Cushing

📣👋 New paper from @sierraclub.org out today! It's been a long time in the making. It challenges conventional sustainable investing and urges asset owners to confront climate change as a systemic threat to the global economy and long-term portfolios. 👉 Full paper: www.sierraclub.org/systemic-cli...

💰️ 🌱 New York City is putting $5 billion behind clean energy investments. Comptroller Levine is proposing an investment of $5 billion into private markets, targeting cleaner, more reliable energy while seeking to generate strong returns for our pensioners.

In 2025, just 12 banks provided almost 40% of ALL fossil fuel funding from banks worldwide. That’s right, a dozen dirty banks are responsible for well over a third of the $906 billion poured into fossil fuels last year. See where your bank falls: bankingonclimatechaos.org #BankingOnClimateChaos

NYC pensions’ new asset manager search could be a major accountability test. BlackRock and other managers seeking to handle public workers’ savings should meet the pensions’ climate-risk standards — or lose business to firms that will. @sierraclub.org statement: www.sierraclub.org/press-releas...

Utility rates are in part going up to fund utility profits, and those shareholders are rewarding executives with eye popping figures.

Union members in many states and cities are holding pension boards accountable and advocating for investments that insure worker protections, climate resiliency, and decent retirement benefits. 1/2 labornotes.org/blogs/2026/0...

BP’s board has suffered a triple climate rebellion in its first shareholder meeting since appointing new leadership to steer the embattled oil company. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

📢 Annual @sierraclub.org scorecard ranks 33 major U.S. public pensions and reveals most are failing to adequately manage the climate-related financial risks to their investments through proxy voting.  See how your state stacks up:

📢 The latest @sierraclub.org scorecard ranks 33 major U.S. public pensions and reveals most are failing to adequately manage the climate-related financial risks to their investments through proxy voting. See how your state stacks up here: www.sierraclub.org/hidden-risk-...

Did your power bills go up last month? It might be because Donald Trump is forcing old coal plants to stay online, and making YOU pay to keep them running. Listen to Sierra Club Senior Attorney Greg Wannier answer how this is possible ⬇️

“If asset owners want to protect their investments from climate impacts, they must stop asset managers from financing the companies fueling the crisis. Too many still aren’t acting," write Sierra Club & Reclaim Finance in @climateandcap.bsky.social.

Remember when CBS News laid off its whole climate reporting team last fall? Good news: I've scooped up their former senior climate producer, and now she's making a podcast with me. Sucks to suck, David Ellison! Listen/watch/subscribe here:

The GOP learned to lie--shamelessly and obviously--from three decades of climate denial. billmckibben.substack.com/p/thinking-a...

The Sierra Club is suing the Environmental Protection Agency over its rollback of key climate protections, arguing the move is illegal, unscientific, and harmful to public health.

New @nyccomptroller.bsky.social @marklevinenyc.bsky.social & NYC pension trustees are weighing a $40B+ move from BlackRock over its climate failures — which could set a key national precedent, writes Sierra Club ED Loren Blackford in @crainsnewyork.bsky.social:

The new @nyccomptroller.bsky.social @marklevinenyc.bsky.social & NYC pension trustees are weighing moving $40B+ out of BlackRock over its climate failures. This step could set a key national precedent, writes @sierraclub.org Executive Director Loren Blackford: www.crainsnewyork.com/op-ed/op-ed-...

🚨 BREAKING: Trump is moving to eliminate the EPA’s Endangerment Finding — one of the strongest legal tools we have to fight climate pollution. We will fight this. Polluters should pay — not the public. Read more at our statement bit.ly/4aNcAwb

Rejection of Texas law blacklisting 'woke' BlackRock could challenge anti-ESG laws in other states reut.rs/4bG88kO

Huge. Laws like this were designed to punish investors for taking basic steps to address climate risk. @sierraclub.org statement: www.sierraclub.org/press-releas... (Also worth noting: the firms targeted were never actually “boycotting” fossil fuels—that was political misinformation all along.)

Short-term investor pressure is driving companies to ditch climate plans, even though climate risk threatens long-term portfolios and the entire economy. Great letter from @bmcushing.bsky.social @ @sierraclub.org: www.ft.com/content/e100...

TODAY: The Senate is expected to hold its first procedural vote on the DHS funding bill — and it can’t pass without Democratic votes. We need to flood the Senate with calls demanding Democrats hold the line and vote NO on giving more money to the regime’s death squads.

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

tomorrow, StandWithMinnesota.com will hit a million site visits and over 650,000 unique visitors. i made it 10 days ago with $600 from you guys for hosting and cloudflare. thank you. thank you.

Wrote myself a pep talk to get back to work tomorrow. It helped me. Hope it helps you.

California pension @calpers.bsky.social invested $60B in 'climate solutions'. So why does that include fossil fuels?  As the largest U.S. public pension, what CalPERS does matters, writes Allie Lindstrom & Jakob Evans for @calmatters.org. calmatters.org/commentary/2...

🚨 Our new scorecard reveals U.S. public pensions are lagging on investing in climate solutions like clean energy & resilience infrastructure, despite knowing that climate change massively threatens millions of public sector workers' retirement savings.

@bmcushing.bsky.social: “Climate change is undermining the financial security of workers and retirees, and threatening the long-term performance of the diversified portfolios that pensions depend on." New @sierraclub.org report highlights the handful of US pensions taking climate seriously.

How are public pension managers addressing climate risks in their investments? New @sierraclub.org report rates different funds on their approaches to these critical issues. @jessyewaxman.bsky.social @bmcushing.bsky.social

📊🌍 NEW Sierra Club report: How are U.S. public pensions managing climate risk through their investments—and are they directing capital to credible #climate solutions? This thread breaks down the key findings. 🧵👇 Read: www.sierraclub.org/reports/sust...

President Trump’s attempts to torpedo offshore wind farms suffered a second blow this week when a federal judge ruled on Thursday that construction for the $5 billion Empire Wind project off Long Island could resume.

An advance look at Barry Blitt’s “Guzzler,” the cover for next week’s issue. #NewYorkerCovers

Jacob Frey: "To ICE -- get the fuck out of Minneapolis"

The invasion of Venezuela has nothing to do with American security. Venezuela is not a security threat to the U.S.. This is about making Trump's oil industry and Wall Street friends rich. Trump's foreign policy - the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela - is fundamentally corrupt.

Let's not forget that Trump just pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández - ex-Honduras president who backed a coup, committed election fraud, violently repressed activists, lawyers, Indigenous people, youth etc - and was entenced to 35 years by an American jury for trafficking drugs and weapons into the US

International law won't constrain Trump's thirst for oil. But every solar panel that goes up makes crude reserves that much less valuable billmckibben.substack.com/p/just-possi...

This Yglesias piece in the NYT is horrifically bad. Almost every "fact" it cites is provably false. At best it is cocktail party banter from a pundit who knows nothing of energy. At worst, it was cut/paste from oil industry talking points. So, a rebuttal: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/o...

In 2025, while much of the financial sector backtracked on climate action, one key part of the system stepped up: public pension funds managing trillions in workers’ savings. 🏦 Here’s how our Sustainable Finance Campaign helped drive progress this year: bit.ly/3MH1q3t

👀 BlackRock just lost another ~$6B mandate after backsliding on addressing climate risk to its clients’ portfolios. NYC pension trustees meet this week and could approve the @nyccomptroller.bsky.social recommendation to shift $42B for the same reason. 🍿