YAALA! In With the New and Out With the Old!

"You're 'Avin A Laugh Alright!" a.k.a YAALA! - In this FPM digest written in a concise nature than our regular exhaustive deliberating posts, we aim to share some of our fund- and investments-related observations and activities. We anecdotally and analytically question and challenge established investment wisdom.

With the approach of Global Divestment Day on 14^th February 2015 to show our support for a fossil free future, FPM target investors in BP Capital Management funds (nothing to do with the British oil giant) to exit their investments. We understand some energy sector investors have already bolted for the exit doors since the more than 50% drop in crude oil prices from the summer of 2014.

While FPM on first-impressions reputation respect the veteran oil tycoon and head of BP Capital, T. Boone Pickens. We understand Mr Pickens' energy investment companies are for the chopping blocks! Or at least into “Alt M&A” play.  While Mr Pickens is a legendary and constant promoter of the energy industry, having a created multi-billion dollar energy company  before concentrating on investing in them, by forming BP Capital in 1996, he’s time has come and gone. In With the New and Out With the Old in his environmentally damaging sponsorship of dirt energy companies.

Aside of his regular promotion of his oil / gas views focused on the USA via his blog website, we notice even today his opposition to Barack Obama’s Government policy to prevent Trans-Alaska pipeline and the Keystone pipeline projects.

He’s one of the largest sponsors of the US energy industry over the last half century yet selfishly or for his investors he seems ignorant of Climate Change concerns. Whether he is passionate in his fear-mongering beliefs (see below quote) or is routinely endorsing energy industry as he has instinctively done, we dare to suggest that the venerable oil entrepreneur is merely protecting his proverbial laurel crown.

  
"Should the president make this view a reality, America’s energy security will be dangerously undermined, and the prospects of a prolonged downturn in gasoline prices that benefit consumers to the tune of $720 per year will be in serious jeopardy… President Obama’s recent proposal to extend wilderness status to 12 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge threatens the viability of America’s biggest oil pipeline: the Trans-Alaska pipeline" Source: T. Boone Pickens, Forbes 10 January 2015

We can only transition towards an alternative energy future if the mainstay die-hard fossil fuel energy and investment companies move out of the way, or sincerely steer their business model towards newer renewable clean energy sources.This is the sector in transition transactional and brokerage value to FPM's creative-destruction model of business.

FPM have analysed the performance of BP Capital Management's top 10 holdings, and other select energy firms. We will disseminate this investment review of the energy sector by calling investors such as London Pension Fund Authority  to urge divestment or switch recommendations, in the coming weeks. Fossil fuel divestment on climate change concerns isn’t just about “environmentalist-placating” policies but to broker the change and face of capitalism in an increasingly globalised plutocracy which is nudging the future inhabitants of the Earth towards the precipice of destroying humanity through the destruction of his habitat.  

Why Is A Fossil Free Future Important?

Climate change is the greatest challenge humanity has encountered. Warming in excess of 2°C will have catastrophic consequences. In order to have a chance of staying below this maximum upper limit of warming 80% of known fossil fuel reserves must not be burnt.

The fossil fuel industry currently holds vast carbon reserves which if burnt would result in emissions 5 times larger than what it is deemed to be safe. All available evidence suggests that fossil fuel companies intend to burn the reserves within their control. In addition, companies such as Shell are actively trying to discover new reserves, often in environmentally sensitive regions.

If it is wrong to damage the world we live in, then it is wrong to profit from that damage. Responsible investors should no longer be profiting from the destructive activities of these companies. Source FPM and 350.org

Calling All Creeds Activists:If you’re not already signed up, please join us 12.30, Sat 14th at City Hall to demand our city goes fossil free.