Will the nuclear deal impact California’s sanctions against Iran? It appears not

As Congress debates whether to approve the Obama administration’s agreement to lift many of the United States’ sanctions against Iran in return for a temporary curb on its nuclear program, one particular paragraph in the 159-page deal has activists and politicians in California wondering how it could impact sanctions here in California — sanctions that may be valued in the billions of dollars.

The answer (for now): probably not at all.

Still, the paragraph in question, which is on Page 15 of the nuclear agreement, stipulates that the federal government “will take appropriate steps, taking into account all available authorities” to “actively encourage officials at the state or local level to take into account the changes in the U.S. policy reflected in the lifting of sanctions under this [agreement] and to refrain from actions inconsistent with this change in policy.”

In California, the widest reaching of those sanctions became law in 2007, when Sen. Joel Anderson (R-San Diego) authored Assembly Bill 221, which passed 76-0 in the Assembly and 36-0 in the state Senate. The bill prohibits California’s two largest pension funds, the Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), from holding investments in any company that does at least $20 million in business with Iran’s petroleum or natural gas industries. The two funds have portfolios worth nearly $500 billion combined. CalPERS is the nation’s largest public retirement fund and CalSTRS is the largest teachers’ retirement fund in the country.