Texas effort to punish BlackRock over green-energy policies receives widespread GOP support

FIRST ON FOX: A wide coalition of dozens of conservative groups and elected officials are backing Texas in response to the state's decision to cancel an $8.5 billion investment with trillion-dollar asset manager BlackRock, a New York-based asset manager.

Led by the nonprofit State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF), 43 groups and officials issued a public memorandum commending Texas State Board of Education Chairman Aaron Kinsey's recent actions severing ties between BlackRock and the Texas Permanent School Fund. Kinsey said the move last month was made in accordance with Texas law, which seeks to punish banks that boycott the oil and gas sector.

"We believe that these actions were not only permissible, but that they were necessary under Texas state law and were demonstrably in the interest of the Texas schoolchildren the Permanent School Fund was founded to support," the groups wrote. "When public officials actually swim against the tide and follow the law, they deserve thanks, not public insult, castigation and thinly veiled legal threats."

SFOF's memo – which was co-signed by Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, Club for Growth Foundation President David McIntosh, American Accountability Foundation President Tom Jones and American Energy Institute CEO Jason Isaac, among others – noted that BlackRock has retaliated with a public letter and social media campaign after Kinsey announced the split.

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On March 21, two days after Kinsey made that announcement, BlackRock Vice Chairman Mark McCombe issued a letter to him saying the firm was "dismayed" and arguing the action puts "short-term politics over your long-term fiduciary responsibilities." He defended BlackRock's actions, stating they were in accordance with the law and that they do not engage in a boycott of the traditional energy sector.

In a statement to FOX Business, BlackRock spokesperson Christopher Van Es said the SFOF letter is "full of false information" and pointed to the $125 billion the firm has invested in the Texas energy industry and more than $300 billion it has invested in the Texas economy.

"Many people have ideas about how we should invest our clients’ assets. In supporting Chairman Kinsey’s reckless statements, the signatories of this letter reject free market principles and are injecting their narrow ideological agenda into the management of public funds," said Van Es. "Millions of Texas public employees, retirees and schools count on fiduciaries to place performance over politics."

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SFOF and the other groups outlined three substantive changes BlackRock needs to make to its business practices to conform with Texas law. 

According to the coalition, BlackRock should withdraw from international organizations seeking to orchestrate opposition to fossil fuel investment, abandon "decarbonization" policies that are a form of boycotting fossil fuels, and stop using its proxy voting authority to promote an anti-fossil fuel agenda.

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Texas' divestment last month represents a large share of the $53 billion Texas PSF, a fund created in the 19th century to support the state's public schools. The action also represents by far the largest divestment of its kind since Republican-led states began terminating financial ties to BlackRock and other banks over their pursuit of so-called environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. 

The ESG movement, which has picked up steam in recent years, calls for investments to be pulled from traditional energy industries and diverted to green energy industries in the fight against global warming. However, the ESG movement has faced significant resistance from both the energy industry and lawmakers at the state and federal levels. 

As part of that pushback, Texas passed Senate Bill 13 in 2021, requiring its state comptroller to list financial companies found to boycott fossil fuel companies. Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar most recently updated that list in October, including BlackRock and several funds managed by the firm, and has called on the Texas PSF, in addition to five state pension funds, to sever ties with the asset manager.

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"If BlackRock wants to do business with Texas, they would be wise to follow Texas law, instead of slandering the public officials who are charged with upholding and carrying it out," SFOF CEO Derek Kreifels told FOX Business. "SFOF commends Comptroller Hegar and Chairman Kinsey and the other brave men and women who are keeping their oath of office to uphold the law and uphold their fiduciary duty."