The $900-million Rockefeller Brothers Fund announced Monday that it will begin divesting its fossil fuel assets, 140 years after John D. Rockefeller Sr. began building an oil business that spawned industry giants Exxon, Mobil, Amoco, and Chevron. “The action we’re taking is symbolism, but it is important symbolism,” said Fund President Stephen Heintz. “We’re making a moral case, but also, increasingly, an economic case.” Fund trustee Valerie Rockefeller Wayne, a great-great-granddaughter of Rockefeller Sr., added that “there is a moral imperative to preserve a healthy planet.” Financial Post columnist and serial climate skeptic Terence Corcoran dismissed the announcement as “a bold but empty public relations move,” commenting that “for more than a century, the Rockefeller family has lived well off the proceeds of crime, apparently.”
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