GOP treasurers protect fossil fuel companies

Document review indicates coordination

Nearly two dozen Republican state treasurers around the country are working to thwart climate action on state and federal levels, fighting regulations that would make clear the economic risks posed by a warming world, lobbying against climate-minded nominees to key federal posts, and using the tax dollars they control to punish companies that want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Over the past year, treasurers in nearly half the United States have been coordinating tactics and talking points, meeting in private, and cheering one another in public as part of a wellfunded campaign to protect the fossil fuel companies that bolster their local economies.

Last week, Riley Moore, treasurer of West Virginia, announced that several major banks — including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo — would be barred from government contracts with his state because they are reducing their investments in coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.

Moore and the treasurers of Louisiana and Arkansas have pulled more than $700 million out of BlackRock, the world’s largest investment manager, over objections that the firm is too focused on environmental issues. At the same time, the treasurers of Utah and Idaho are pressuring the private sector to drop climate action and other causes they label as “woke.”

And treasurers from Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Oklahoma joined a larger campaign to thwart the nominations of federal regulators who wanted to require that banks, funds, and companies disclose the financial risks posed by a warming planet.

At the nexus of these efforts is the State Financial Officers Foundation, a little-known nonprofit organization based in Shawnee, Kan., that once focused on cybersecurity, borrowing costs, and managing debt loads, among other routine issues.

Then President Biden took office, promising to speed the country’s transition away from oil, gas, and coal, the burning of which is dangerously heating the planet.

The foundation began pushing Republican state treasurers, who are mostly elected officials and who are responsible for managing their state’s finances, to use their power to promote oil and gas interests and to stymie Biden’s climate agenda, records show.

The New York Times reviewed thousands of pages of internal e-mails and documents obtained through public records requests by Documented, a watchdog group, that shed light on the treasurers’ efforts since January 2021.

At conferences, on weekly calls, and with a steady stream of e-mails, the foundation hosted representatives from the oil industry and funneled research and talking points from conservative groups to the state treasurers, who have channeled the private groups’ goals into public policy.

The Heritage Foundation, the Heartland Institute, and the American Petroleum Institute are among the conservative groups with ties to the fossil fuel industry that have been working with the State Financial Officers Foundation and the treasurers to shape their national strategy.

In November, as major banks and corporations at a global summit in Glasgow, Scotland, were promising to take climate action, the Republican state treasurers were huddling at a State Financial Officers Foundation conference in Orlando, talking about ways to stop them.

At the meeting, the group’s CEO, Derek Kreifels, made a presentation about a new law that had been signed by Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican. It prohibited state agencies from investing in businesses that have cut ties with fossil fuel companies.

Within weeks, Moore was working with legislators in West Virginia to write a similar bill, which became law in March. While Texas officials have been slow to enforce their law, Moore was quick to put it into action.

Last week, he notified five major financial institutions — Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley — that they are barred from doing business with West Virginia because they have intentionally wound down their dealings with coal companies.

Moore offered a classic denial of the overwhelming scientific consensus that the continued burning of oil, gas, and coal will lead to planetary catastrophe.

“The climate has been changing in the world since Earth was created,” Moore said. “Whether these greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to the warming of the globe, I’m not sure I necessarily agree with that.”

The banks targeted by Moore say they are not boycotting the fossil fuel industry. All of them still do substantial business with oil and gas companies, but in the long run, they say, moving away from fossil fuels makes economic sense. West Virginia is the second-largest coal-producing state in the country, but production has declined significantly during the past two decades.

Kreifels declined an interview request.

Kentucky, Tennessee, and Oklahoma have passed similar laws this year.

The laws could cost taxpayers. A recent study found that Texas cities — where some financial institutions have voluntarily left the market because of laws targeting companies that embrace environmental, social, and governance priorities, collectively known as ESG — are likely to incur up to $532 million in higher interest costs in less than a year because of the legislation.