June 16, 2022
Glenn Beck, on Blaze News Live yesterday morning, sang the praises of West Virginia’s State Treasurer Riley Moore over his handling of 5 financial firms accused of boycotting fossil fuel companies.
According to a freedom of information request by Ridgeview News, we received copies of the six letters sent from the Treasurer’s office to six of the nation’s biggest financial firms. They have been told that they will be denied access to state contracts in West Virginia as Republican leaders pushback on what they see as bias against the fossil fuel industry. According to the United States Energy Information Administration, West Virginia is number 2 in coal production, number 5 in natural gas production and number 5 in total energy production.
BlackRock Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., JP Morgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and U.S. Bancorp are due to be placed on West Virginia’s Restricted Financial Institution List in 45 days, according to letters sent to the companies on June10, 2022 by state Treasurer Riley Moore.
Placement on the list would leave the firms ineligible to enter into or remain in banking contracts with the state. They have 30 days to respond with information showing they’re not boycotting the fossil fuel industry. This effort is meant to push back against ESG financing, believing that the aforementioned banks are choosing politics over sound lending practices by reducing their funding of fossil fuel projects to appease activist investors.
West Virginia became the first state to cut ties with a firm over ESG policy when Moore announced earlier this year that he was pulling out of a BlackRock Investment Fund that manages $10 trillion in assets, while Moore’s office oversees $8 billion in operating funds. Only a fraction of which was invested in BlackRock. He doesn’t control the state’s pension fund which does invest with BlackRock.
Some of the Financial leaders involved have disputed claims of bias, but the potential ban is based in reports that BlackRock has urged companies to embrace ‘net zero’ investment strategies that would harm the coal, oil, and natural gas industries, while increasing investments in Chinese companies that subvert national interests and damage West Virginia’s manufacturing base and job market.
