An AP story from yesterday (also thanks to the SDTF site)...
Millions of dollars from Idaho's public employee pension fund will stay invested in companies that do business with Sudan, for now.
The Senate Commerce and Human Resources Committee voted 4-3 [on] Thursday to kill a proposal that would have had Idaho divest about $41 million from foreign companies with ties to the troubled African country. Opponents said [that] divestment would have little impact on atrocities in the Darfur region, while forcing the state to give up unusually lucrative investments.
The Sudanese government is held up by the business of these companies, said John Sullivan, a Boise lawyer working with the Washington, D.C.-based Sudan Divestment Task Force.
If enough groups join in divesting from companies that do business with Khartoum, the government will eventually feel pressure to stop the violence in the war-torn Darfur region, said Sullivan, who spearheaded the proposal.
An estimated 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes since 2003.
The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Mike Burkett, D-Boise, would have required Idaho to sell shares in [PetroChina] and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical, two Chinese state-owned companies; French turbine maker Alstom; Swedish energy exploration company Lundin; Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas; and British-based Rolls Royce Group.
American companies have been banned from doing business with Sudan since 1997.
Idaho would have joined six other states that have passed similar divestiture laws, most recently California.
Alan Winkle, director of the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho, spoke against the measure, saying [that] the investments had good track records of making money for the state.
Divesting would defy the mission [that] the Legislature has set for his organization: investing with the best interest of retirees in mind, Winkle said. He said $65 million in PERSI investments with companies that have ties to Sudan are worth $81 million now.
"These companies are huge players in the market. They are some of the primary players," Winkle said. "And to work around them and guarantee we will get the same level of return on our investment ... it would be very difficult."
Lawmakers also said [that] they didn't like the implications of the Legislature telling investment managers where they could put their money.
"We shouldn't engage in the politics of trying to determine where they should be investing," said Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert. "There are hundreds of other egregious situations in this world. ... If you do this, the next time it's another region of the world with problems."
Sullivan said [that] the situation in Darfur was unique because it has been declared a genocide by the U.S. government.
"It's not a good investment when we are involved in companies that are financially supporting a genocide," he said. "Is it prudent to invest in a company that is financing genocide? Is there no limitation?"
The four votes against the proposal came from Cameron and Sens. John Goedde, R-Cour d'Alene, Joyce Broadsword, R-Stagle, and John Andreason, R-Boise. Voting in favor were Sens. Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston, Elliot Werk, D-Boise, and Diane Bilyeu, D-Pocatello.
Two lawmakers, Sen. Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, and Sen. Chuck Coiner, R-Twin Falls, were absent.
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