Private equity industry replaces Wall Street as oil & gas investors

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As Wall Street banks and investors face mounting pressure to disinvest in oil and gas, the private equity industry is taking their place, reports CBS News.

The eight largest buyout firms have put nearly as much money into coal, oil and gas as the big banks, according to a recent analysis from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFREF).

The firms, which include Apollo Global Management, Blackstone Group, Brookfield Asset Management, Carlyle Group, KKR and Warbug Pincus, collectively oversee $216 billion worth of fossil-fuel assets — on par with how much money big banks put into fossil fuels last year. Looking at the 10 largest private equity funds, it found that 80% of their energy investments were in fossil fuels. Read the entire story.