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Well, the days of rolling over and allowing the left to run roughshod over the GOP could be ending… and it looks like it’s going out with a big bang. Red States are now taking on one of the biggest enemies we’ve got in this new “woke war.” …. the banks. And the Red States have put together an all-out “assault plot” to take them down. Fox Business reported that Republican state officials are readying plans to punish woke banks that push anti-fossil fuel policies and adhere to so-called environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards.
West Virginia announced last week it would bar five major financial institutions, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, from entering into banking contracts with the state treasurer’s office or any state agency. Each of the five corporations had committed to policies limiting commercial engagement with the fossil fuel industry, which paid a whopping $769 million in taxes to West Virginia’s state government.
“We’re not going to pay for our own destruction, we’re not going to subsidize that,” West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore told FOX Business during an interview. “They have weaponized our tax dollars against the very people and industry that have generated them to begin with. That is why we’re pushing back against this ESG movement.”
He noted that U.S. Bancorp backed off its prohibition of fossil fuel lending and was, as a result, kept off the state’s restricted list of financial institutions.
Moore’s action, a first-of-its-kind response to major banks’ ESG push, is likely to be the start of many similar actions nationwide. At least 15 Republican-led states, which collectively manage tens of billions of dollars in public funds, have proposed laws or policies that would similarly punish anti-fossil fuel banks over the last year, according to a FOX Business analysis.
“We’ve really seen, frankly, a weaponization of capital by some of the largest banks and fund managers in the world,” Derek Kreifels, the CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF), told FOX Business. “If you want to make social change in this country, we have a democratic process that you should utilize to get that done.”
The SFOF has assembled a “NATO-like alliance” of state treasurers and financial officers who are committed to forwarding free market policies, Kreifels added. The group and its members have focused in particular on ESG issues in recent months, confronting the federal government, banks and S&P Global, a credit rating agency that assigns ESG scores.
A dozen state financial officers contacted by FOX Business applauded West Virginia’s restriction of banks and confirmed they were crafting their own response to “woke banks.”
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We love to see Republicans finally fighting back. They will always have their voters behind them when they go to battle. We understand what’s happening and how this woke culture is choking America, and we will do whatever it takes to bring these companies to their knees. At this point, nobody is “too big” to fall. Not in this climate. Just ask Netflix.