O'Brien: Consider withholding donations to UW over energy

Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland Jul 4, 2025

Feb 6, 2018

Republish Article

You can republish articles in print or online. Simply copy the HTML below, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline, and credit to Cascade PBS. Republishing of the photos or videos embedded in an article can occur only if the photo or video is a copyright of Cascade Public Media ("CPM") and not of a third party. Photos and videos that are a copyright of CPM are not required to appear in the republished article, but if they are used, they must be embedded where they appear in the original article and must include the attribution to the CPM photographer.

You may reprint in any medium
You may edit only for tense and timeliness
If republishing in print you can edit for length if you follow our print republishing guidelines.
You may write your own headline
Include a byline and shirttail with credit and link to Cascade PBS
Include our tracking pixel
Remove if we ask

          <article>
            <header>
              <hgroup>
                <h1>O'Brien: Consider withholding donations to UW over energy</h1>
                <h2><p>Seattle City Councilmember Mike O'Brien suggests that people consider pledging not to donate to the UW until it ends all investments in fossil fuels. Joel Connelly of seattlepi.com notes that the UW is Seattle's largest employer, potentially making O'Brien's stance risky,</p></h2>
              </hgroup>
               <p>By <a href="/author/joe-copeland-crosscut-com/">Joe Copeland</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
            </header>
            <p>Seattle City Councilmember Mike O'Brien suggests that people consider pledging not to donate to the UW until it ends all investments in fossil fuels. <a href="http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2015/05/12/obrien-dont-give-to-uw-until-it-divests-energy-stocks/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org#13224101=0">Joel Connelly of seattlepi.com notes </a>that the UW is Seattle's largest employer, potentially making O'Brien's stance risky, but the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (a family foundation that grew out of the wealth of the Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller) is already selling its energy stocks. The UW Regents are voting Thursday on disinvesting in coal.</p>
          </article>

Seattle City Councilmember Mike O'Brien suggests that people consider pledging not to donate to the UW until it ends all investments in fossil fuels. Joel Connelly of seattlepi.com notes that the UW is Seattle's largest employer, potentially making O'Brien's stance risky, but the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (a family foundation that grew out of the wealth of the Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller) is already selling its energy stocks. The UW Regents are voting Thursday on disinvesting in coal.

Our members' donations make local journalism happen.

Support once for $1

Support monthly for $7

Cascade PBS Passport
Mossback members-only newsletter
Monthly Viewer Guide

Support monthly for $25

Invitation to quarterly news and original programming video conference
Annual in-person meet-up with news & programming teams
Special event perks (reduced price or free tickets, cocktails, etc.)

Continue

By Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland is the former senior editor&nbsp;for Crosscut, where he has been an editor since 2010. Before that, he was an editorial writer and columnist for the Seattle P-I and editorial page edi