February 8, 2016

Dear Representative Sharon E. Har,

I write in full support of HB 1511 relating to the divestment in all investments in fossil fuels with the
money from taxpayers and their retirement funds. Please pass this bill and further help the world in
retracting their environmental footprint.
I live in Kapolei, Oahu in the homestead of Kaupea. I have paid my taxes ever since I was of working
age, at the age of fifteen years old, now I am twenty-six. I am writing you as a concerned constituent
regarding how my tax money and retirement money is being invested along with others. The employees
retirement system currently invests public funds in fossil fuel companies that are contributing to rising
costs to taxpayers and losses to Hawaiis largest public-sector pension plan. Please do everything in your
power to support House Bill 1511 in the divestment from fossil fuel investments.
I write as a young adult who looks forward to their future and the futures of my kids and coming
generations. Withdrawing in fossil fuel investments makes sense to only for me but many other
companies. As it states in the Bill major global investors have already pledged to withdraw a total of
$50,000,000,000 from fossil fuel investments over the next five years. Now that says something if these
global investors are ready to withdraw all of that money when it comes to fossil fuels.
I dont see this issue as only a personal and global issue; I see this as a cultural issue. Climate change and
the deepening social inequality that results from fossil fuels threatens Hawaiian people and our lands, as
well as all of humanity and countless other species. Investing in the fossil fuel industry, which does
tremendous environmental harm, does not align with the principle of the people of Hawaii for mlama
ina that has sustained the Hawaiian people for hundreds of generations. Climate change, including
ocean acidification, is impacting and will continue to impact land as well as other sites of cultural
significance to Hawaiians. From investing in fossil fuels it gives leeway to further resource abuse and that
in turn affects practitioners and many practices of the Hawaiian people and the people of Hawaii.
A vote for House Bill 1511 to divest in fossil fuels from taxpayers monies and retirement funds will not
help change the world but will help maintain a Hawaii that I want my family to grow up in. Please stand
with unions, businesses, and global investors who have endorsed this bill and the principle of helping stop
global warming.
Sincerely,
Nanea Claire Lo
Hawaiian Studies Student at the University of Hawaii Mnoa