GQP/ALEC Respond To Climate Emergency W. Legislation To Force Investment In Fossil Fuel Industry
At a meeting of its the Energy, Environment and Agricultural Task Force in San Diego last December, members of the fossil fuel industry-backed American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) voted in support of draft model legislation that punishes financial institutions for divesting from or choosing not to invest in fossil fuels. Specifically, the legislation would require state fiduciaries to pull investments or contracts from financial institutions that, according to the charged language of the ALEC draft, “boycott energy companies.” ALEC has not responded to multiple requests for comment as to the nature of the vote in San Diego or on whether it’s supporting state-level efforts to pass similar bills, though in a recent blog post stated that the policy—the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act—“failed to become an official ALEC model policy” and that “discussion may continue” on it in the future.
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Much of Oklahoma is engulfed by drought. It’s particularly severe in the western panhandle, and has raised concerns among the state’s wheat and cattle producers. The Enid area, in the northern part of the state, has received less than an inch of rain in the last three months. “Recent conditions stand in stark contrast to drought conditions for the same time frame last year, when most of the state was drought free,” the Enid News & Eagle reports. State Senator Michael Bergstrom—who attended the December task force meeting in San Diego—introduced SB1572 (“The Energy Discrimination Elimination Act of 2022”) earlier this month. It has yet to come up for a vote.
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Moutainous West Virginia, where coal-backed legislators have re-introduced Energy Discrimination Elimination legislation for the second year in a row, is more vulnerable to flood damage over the coming decade than any state in the Union, recent data shows. Indiana experienced intense floods over the last week that will only grow more common as temperatures rise. House Bill 1224, prohibiting the state government from investing in or contracting with companies that “boycott” energy companies, was introduced late last month there, though has since floundered.
The irony of these preemptive anti-divestment bills is that banks aren’t currently making any real move away from fossil fuel investments. In January, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick requested that Blackrock be “at the top of the list” mandated by the bill, for allegedly “turning its back on our flourishing oil and gas industry and the millions of Texans who rely upon it.” Blackrock, meanwhile, has not shown any signs of abandoning fossil fuels. Research from the German watchdog group Urgeweld revealed that Blackrock has over $100 billion invested in companies that represent 90 percent of the world’s thermal coal production and coal-fired power generation capacity. Vanguard—another “big three” asset manager—has a comparable amount invested in coal, Urgeweld found. The other, State Street, is investing $36 billion in coal. All three are members of the private sector-led, UN-convened Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net-Zero (GFANZ), having pledged to reach net-zero emissions across their portfolios by 2050. But Blackrock has reaffirmed its commitment to investing in fossil fuels, and had $259 billion in fossil fuel investments as of June. “We will continue to invest in and support fossil fuel companies, including Texas fossil fuel companies,” read a memo signed by BlackRock head of external affairs Dalia Blass and sent to state officials in January.
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https://newrepublic.com/article/165429/republicans-respond-world-historical-drought-propping-fossil-fuels
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The irony of these preemptive anti-divestment bills is that banks aren’t currently making any real move away from fossil fuel investments.
We're so fucked.