This week in responsible investing, extreme Republicans in Texas released a party platform featuring a wildly unpopular and radical agenda, including abolishing abortion and subjecting women who receive an abortion to homicide charges. In other states, nineteen Republican officials sided with Exxon executives over the company’s shareholders in an ongoing conflict around investors who wanted the company to reach certain clean energy targets. All that and more below:
A new report shows how anti-responsible investing laws in Texas could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars.
From UAF’s release: “The Perryman Group’s report reinforces what we already knew — extremism is bad for business,” said Kyle Herrig, spokesperson for Unlocking America’s Future. “Blacklisting competitors vying for state contracts and pension plans has catastrophic effects on the Texas economy and risks the financial security of Texans trying to save for retirement. Many Texas lawmakers have long been cozy with Big Oil, as seen by Governor Greg Abbott’s $53 million in career campaign donations from the sector. Still, their latest moves to ban financial institutions for engaging in responsible investing is unprecedentedly negligent and transparent. Texans should know their elected officials are trading their pension security for media clout and campaign cash.”
- From WFAA-TV: “Irrespective of their intended purpose, initiatives which meaningfully restrict options available for public finance and bonds or pension investments can generate significant economic effects,” the Perryman Report stated. “If Texas policy leads to inefficiencies and less-than-optimal outcomes in the municipal bond market or the state’s pension funds it could cause significant deadweight losses to the economy as well as downstream consequences.”
Texas Republicans released their extreme and unpopular party platform.
From UAF’s memo: “Following the primary runoffs in Texas, several moderate Republicans made it through unscathed, including two clear victories for the U.S. House of Representatives: Reps. Tony Gonzalez (TX-34) and Chris Goldman (TX-12). On the state level, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-12) faced arguably the toughest electoral challenge after he backed Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment, but Phelan maintained his seat with a 366 vote margin against a well-funded opponent backed by Donald Trump. These results demonstrate that the Party’s extreme agenda bears political consequences.”
- From the Hill’s reporting on Texas’ runoff elections: Nearly three-quarters of Texans believe the state has been captured by “an extreme conservative agenda,” according to a poll from the progressive group Unlocking America’s Future earlier this month.
GOP officials from nineteen states chose to side with Exxon officials over their shareholders.
From Reuters: “The group, including Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and Louisiana State Treasurer John Fleming, said in a letter to companies including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan, that Exxon’s board ‘deserve our thanks and support… for seeking to rein in activist shareholders’. Exxon’s pursuit of the case against Arjuna Capital and Follow This over a proposal the company push for stricter climate targets, even after the investor groups withdrew it, has split opinion among shareholders and state officials.”
UAF released a new report exposing big oil’s lies about the SEC’s climate disclosure rule.
From the report: Of all the baseless attacks against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) climate risk disclosure rule, the claim that it would force Big Oil to raise prices is one of the most audacious to date. Last month, Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright appeared before the House Financial Services Committee in a hearing discussing the potential impacts of the new proposed rules. During the hearing, Wright claimed that the rule would impose “immense costs” on companies like the one he runs.
Read more:
- ICYMI: Politico Covers New Report From Unlocking America’s Future Exposing Big Oil’s False Claims Around SEC Climate Risk Disclosure Rule
- ICYMI: Republican Officials From Nineteen States Side with Exxon Executives Over Their Shareholders Amid Contentious Board Election
- MEMO: Texas Republicans Release Extreme and Unpopular Party Platform
- The Hill: 5 takeaways from Texas’s contentious primary runoffs
- Texas divestment over reduced oil and gas involvement could cost state hundreds of millions, report says
- RELEASE: New Report Shows Texas Anti-ESG Laws Could Cost State Over $820 Million in 2024 Alone
