Perusing the Inter-web, we found State Street Global Advisors SPDR S&P 500 FOSSIL FUEL FREE ETF, and just wondered “is that even possible.” No. Well, that didn’t take long.
According to State Street: “The ETF Fund may purchase a subset of the securities in the “Index” in an effort to hold a portfolio of securities with generally the same risk and return characteristics of the Index. The Index is designed to measure the performance of companies in the S&P 500 Index that do not own fossil fuel reserves. For purposes of the composition of the Index, fossil fuel reserves are defined as economically and technically recoverable sources of crude oil, natural gas and thermal coal but do not include metallurgical or coking coal, which are used in connection with steel production. The Index is a subset of the S&P 500 Index (the “Underlying Index”), which serves as the initial universe of eligible securities for the Index. In constructing the Index, the initial universe is screened in an effort to exclude companies with any ownership of fossil fuel reserves, including for third-party and in-house power generation, as determined by publicly available information, such as annual reports and other company publications.”
An FYI – this is not an offer to buy or a solicitation by Oil & Gas 360® to purchase, sell, short, calculate a Sharpe ratio, or care about Alpha, Beta, or if the Broncos, Cowboys and Patriots have QB controversies with the Fossil Fuel Free ETF.
The top five holdings of the Fossil Fuel Free ETF as of December 31, 2015, are: Apple, Inc., Microsoft, GE, Johnson & Johnson and Amazon. As of December 31, 2015, the fund’s asset allocations included the stocks of companies operating as: Electric Utilities, Multi-Utilities, Energy, Equipment & Services, Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels, Road & Rail, Air Freight & Logistics, Airlines, Automobiles, Auto Components, and Independent Power Producers. These groups represent 8.2% of the fund’s Net Assets at year-end 2015.
In November 2013, The Atlantic Monthly released a list of the 50 Greatest Breakthroughs, aka the “50 Greatest Innovations” since the wheel. Here’s an abbreviated list of those innovations, by ranking:
- 2: Electricity
- 4: Semiconductor electronics
- 7: Internal combustion engine
- 9: Internet
- 10: Steam engine
- 15: Airplane
- 16: Personal computer
- 18: Automobile
- 35: Oil refining
- 36: Steam turbine
- 39: Oil drilling
- 42: Paper money
We believe the entirety of the 50 Breakthrough Innovations are mostly, if not entirely dependent on fossil fuel to work.
Can you image how the Frac Moms in Boulder, Denver and Larimer counties of Colorado feel knowing that their offspring are dependent on fossil fuel to live their lives of luxury? As one Frac Mom told us: “Hey, I drive a Prius, so I’m using electricity.” You can’t fix stupid. It goes all the way to the bone.
