The Washington Post has an incredible roundup of states seeking to punish financial firms and businesses that are rightfully moving away from the fossil fuel industry. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors are on the minds of many stakeholders as the Securities and Exchange Commission weighs an ESG proposal that would require public companies to disclose climate risk and how their own actions may hasten climate change. The GOP has taken notice and proposed bills across the country cracking down on companies that may take ESG—or anything climate-related—seriously. One such bill in Texas that was signed into law, SB 13, bars state agencies from investing in financial companies no longer doing business with the fossil fuel industry.
As The Washington Post notes, similar legislation has popped up in Oklahoma and Louisiana. In Oklahoma’s case, HB 2034 was signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt last month. It forces state entities to divest from any company boycotting the oil and gas industry in its business dealings. Under the law, the state treasurer will enforce such practices by keeping track of companies entities must divest from. Those entities have 180 days to rid themselves of at least half of those assets and nearly a year before they must completely divest. The law takes effect on Nov. 1 but, to many Republicans, that date can’t come soon enough.
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“Oklahoma is the state that fossil fuels built. For more than 100 years, Oklahoma has been a major oil and gas producing state,” cosponsor of the bill and state Rep. Mark McBride said in a statement. “While we've diversified to include other energy sources, our economy and thousands of Oklahoma jobs are connected to the oil and gas industry. It must be protected from global movements and liberal ideologies that seek to disrupt or even stop it.” Unsurprisingly, McBride counts the oil and gas industry among his top three campaign donors and has received more than $80,000 in contributions from that sector.
Also unsurprising is the man behind the Louisiana legislation similarly barring state retirement funds from investing in companies that refuse to do business with the oil and gas industry. HB 25 was introduced by state Rep. Danny McCormick, a literal oil tycoon from Oil City. The short and sweet two-page bill uses the same blanket statements as Oklahoma’s, proclaiming that entities shouldn’t be doing business with firms that refuse to do business with the energy sector. Conspicuously missing are all the industries that sector encompasses, so there’s no explicit mention of oil and gas—but the intent is certainly there.
When reached by The Washington Post, McCormick had this to say about his bill: “I don't know if we've proved that man-made climate change is significant enough to be concerned about at this time. Prosperity is tied to affordable energy. And if we make energy unaffordable, it's going to impoverish so many people.” It’s rather disconcerting knowing that the future of state pensions may be decided by an oil-loving climate change denier, but even if McCormick were interested in what’s actually happening to the climate, he likely wouldn’t go against the industry that’s taken such great care of him. Some of McCormick’s top campaign donors aren’t just himself as an oil baron but oil and gas lobbying groups and even polluters themselves, like Chevron and Doc Energy Services.