Woke Leftwing Financial Titan BlackRock "Begs" Texas to Remove It From the List of Companies that Boycott the Energy Industry

BlackRock is a Clinton and Obama connected super-firm that has pioneered "Environmental Social Governance" -- ESG -- investing, which means investing where you don't worry about profit so much as leftwing political objectives.

They are the worst of bad actors and ESG is being used to redirect the full might of corporate power to the aims of the socialist left. If the Republican Party were anything other than a plutocrat services concierge they would roll back the Obama rules allowing companies to invest other people's money in companies where politics, not profit, is prioritized.

But they won't, because too many of their rich patrons are now invested in ESG.

Texas pushed back against them, putting them on a list of companies that boycott traditional energy companies and thus making them ineligible to receive money from Texas state funds, and now they're demanding to be taken off the list.

They claim they don't boycott energy firms -- of course, they mean they invest in wind and solar and other non-energy-producing "energy" ventures.

BlackRock Inc. and UBS Group AG are among major financial firms taking steps to be removed from a list of companies that Texas has classified as "boycotting" the fossil fuel industry.

Representatives from at least five companies have asked the office of state Comptroller Glenn Hegar to remove them from the divestment list he published in August, arguing that they shouldn't have been included to begin with, according to documents Bloomberg obtained through a public records request.

The efforts underscore how crucial Texas' booming economy and population are as a source of growth for the finance world. Firms on the Republican comptroller's list may struggle to win underwriting business from the state's myriad issuers of municipal debt or gain access to entities like the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.

"We believe your determination is incorrect and is contradicted by verifiable public information," BlackRock Head of External Affairs Dalia Blass and Chief Client Officer Mark McCombe wrote in an Oct. 3 letter to Hegar. "BlackRock does not boycott energy companies" under the relevant state code.

As mandated by a law that the Texas Republican-controlled legislature passed last year and that took effect in September 2021, Hegar's office released a divestment list of 10 companies in late August -- including UBS and BlackRock -- as well as more than 300 individual funds.

Hegar's task was to prepare a list of firms that his office deems "boycott energy companies" -- a pillar of the state's economy -- under the Texas law. The entities then risk losing access to business with certain state governments and organizations.
...

Meanwhile, Tom Naratil, co-president of UBS Global Wealth Management until last month, submitted a clarification letter regarding the list in September. A UBS spokesperson told Bloomberg in October that the firm met with the comptroller's office and reiterated the importance of the energy industry and Texas. UBS said last month that it provided more information showing, "it is both our policy and practice to do business with energy companies, including those in the fossil fuel industry."
UBS Group's arm that underwrites US municipal bond sales hasn't handled any offerings in Texas' lucrative market for state and local-government debt since Hegar announced his findings, and was removed from a $3.4 billion transaction slated to price next year.

"We are actively working with the authorities in Texas to reinforce the importance of the energy industry and Texas to our business," Erica Chase, a UBS spokesperson, said in a statement. "UBS does not boycott the energy industry."

BlackRock didn't respond to requests for comment on the correspondence with Hegar's office.

More of this, please.

posted by Ace at 02:07 PM

| Access Comments