by Zachary Halaschak at Washington Examiner
Texas will pull some $8.5 billion in investments from BlackRock over its ESG policies, the biggest such divestment after several Republican states have moved to cut ties with firms that conservatives see as privileging liberal goals.
Texas State Board of Education Chairman Aaron Kinsey announced the move on Tuesday. A letter was sent to BlackRock the same day notifying the world’s largest money manager. The divestment was done to comply with the state’s anti-environmental, social, and governance law, which prohibits state investment in companies like BlackRock that Republicans say boycott energy companies.
“BlackRock’s dominant and persistent leadership in the ESG movement immeasurably damages our state’s oil and gas economy and the very companies that generate revenues for our [Permanent School Fund],” Kinsey said. “Texas and the PSF have worked hard to grow this fund to build Texas’s schools.”
“BlackRock’s destructive approach towards the energy companies that this state and our world depend on is incompatible with our fiduciary duty to Texans,” he added.
BlackRock, though,…
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