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The explosion of ESG fraud over the past six months continues unabated.
The latest information comes from the state of Texas, which is reportedly terminating an $8.5 billion investment in BlackRock Inc. due to the investment manager’s boycott of the energy company. Report from Fox News.
Texas State Board of Education Chairman Aaron Kinsey said this week that the Texas Permanent School Fund has notified BlackRock that it is ending its investment.
Kinsey said. fox news This week: “The Texas Permanent School Fund has a fiduciary duty to protect Texas schools by protecting and increasing the approximately $1 billion in annual oil and gas royalties administered by the Texas General Land Office. Black Terminating the agreement with Rock ensures that PSF is fully compliant with Texas law.”
Kinsey continued, “BlackRock’s dominant and persistent leadership in the ESG movement is causing untold harm to the state’s oil and gas economy and to the very companies that generate PSF’s revenue. PSF has worked hard to increase this fund to build schools in Texas.”
“BlackRock’s destructive approach to the energy companies this state and our world depend on is inconsistent with our fiduciary responsibility to Texans,” he said.
Texas has taken the important move of divesting a significant portion of its $53 billion Permanent School Fund (PSF), originally established in the 19th century to support public education. The move is the largest divestment since Republican-led states began cutting financial ties with BlackRock and similar companies over their adoption of ESG standards.
In response to these protests, Texas enacted Senate Bill 13 in 2021, requiring the state comptroller to identify and list financial institutions that boycott fossil fuel operations. In response, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar updated the list in October, including BlackRock, urging Texas PSF and five state pension funds to separate themselves from investment companies. did.
Kinsey concluded: “Today marks a major step forward for Texas PSF and the entire state. PSF cannot afford to stand idly by while our financial future is attacked by Wall Street. This bold action will ensure that our PSF will exist virtually forever and will continue to support bright futures and opportunities for generations of Texas students. ”
BlackRock said, “Today’s unilateral and arbitrary decision by School Board Chairman Aaron Kinsey is a serious threat to Texas, which has benefited from BlackRock’s long history of outperforming the Texas Permanent School Fund.” “It puts schools and families at risk.”
“This decision ignores a $120 billion investment in Texas’ public energy companies and ignores expert advice. As a fiduciary, and especially for taxpayers, politics never trumps performance. It shouldn’t be done,” he added.
But Derek Kreifels, CEO of the State Treasurer’s Foundation, felt differently, expressing support for the termination and saying, “Today’s bold move by Aaron Kinsey and the Texas Permanent Schools Fund… In accordance with state law, This is a major blow against ESG fraud. ”
“Under the leadership of Larry Fink, BlackRock has been misusing customer funds to further its political agenda for years. Nowhere was the situation worse than in Texas. “BlackRock was simultaneously trying to destroy the nation’s oil and gas industry while relying on royalties from that very same industry,” said Will Hild, executive director of Consumers Research. added.
He said this was a “clear message”. “Wall Street elites believe that people can no longer be bullied into following the destructive ideology of ESG.”
Posted by: Zerohedge.com
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