On April 28, 2026, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted to restrict the county’s investment pool from purchasing any new fossil fuel company bonds. The county had already let $30 million in Chevron and Exxon bonds expire over the past two years. Tuesday’s resolution makes that break permanent.

This is a big deal and not just for Silicon Valley.

Years of Work. One Vote.

This win didn’t come out of nowhere. It was built by 21 community organizations who sent a joint letter to the Board, and led by Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action, 350 Silicon Valley, and the Pacifica Climate Committee. It moved through the county’s Sustainability Commission, then the Finance and Government Operations Committee, before landing in front of the Board. At each step, community members showed up and gave public comment.

That’s what a sustained divestment campaign looks like.

Board President Otto Lee captured the stakes clearly: “Santa Clara County has recognized the urgency of the climate emergency. By updating our investment policy to restrict future fossil fuel investments, we are ensuring our public funds reflect our commitment to climate action.”

Public Money Should Serve the Public

Santa Clara County is already living the consequences of a warming planet, rising sea levels, drought, heat waves, and intensifying wildfires are not abstractions here. They are budget line items, emergency responses, and community crises.

That context makes the divestment question a direct one: why should county residents’ public dollars fund the companies driving those harms?

The answer, increasingly, is that they shouldn’t and elected officials across California are starting to act like it.

Cynthia Kaufman of Fossil Free California said it plainly: “The fossil fuel industry helped put Donald Trump in power. It is supporting the very forces that have caused a more than $450 million hole to emerge in our county’s budget.” That’s not rhetoric. Santa Clara County is facing a documented $470 million structural deficit heading into fiscal year 2026–27 driven in part by federal funding cuts championed by an administration the fossil fuel industry bankrolled. The county is cutting positions and restructuring services. Continuing to invest public money in the companies contributing to that crisis would be a choice.

This Is What Momentum Looks Like

Santa Clara County joins San Mateo, Napa, and Sonoma county investment pools; the State of New York Retirement Funds; the University of California; the California State University system; and the cities of San Jose, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, and Mountain View among more than 1,500 institutions globally representing over $14 trillion in divested assets.

Carlos Davidson of the Pacifica Climate Committee drew the right historical parallel in their press release: “Just like with divestment from tobacco and South Africa Apartheid, by divesting we bring attention to the fact that the power of the fossil fuel industry is the single biggest obstacle to government action on climate change.”

To the Organizers: Thank You

To Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action, 350 Silicon Valley, the Pacifica Climate Committee, Fossil free California and all 21 organizations that signed on this is your win. You built it over years, in commission meetings and committee hearings and public comment periods, with the kind of patient, disciplined organizing that actually changes policy.

The county’s public dollars will not be used to fund the companies wrecking the climate. That’s what accountability looks like.