[That so many states have been passing such legislation that
forbids considering environment, society, and governance implications
of financial investments is anything but a fluke.]
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THE GOP, ESG, AND THE WILLFUL DESTRUCTION OF PLANET EARTH  
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Stan Cox
April 2, 2023
Tom Dispatch [[link removed]]

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_ That so many states have been passing such legislation that forbids
considering environment, society, and governance implications of
financial investments is anything but a fluke. _

A silhouette is seen in front of flames at a wildfire near
Belin-Beliet, southwestern France, overnight on August 11, 2022.,
Photo by Thibaud Moritz / AFP via Getty Images

 

The demise of Silicon Valley Bank last month triggered plenty of angst
among solar energy developers. Before it collapsed, SBV claimed it had
“financed or helped finance 62 percent of community solar projects
in America,” according to
[[link removed]]_Washington
Post_ business reporter Evan Halper. At first, it wasn’t clear who
might fill that gap. MAGA politicians took great delight
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in the disruption of what they tediously referred to as the “woke”
economy. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) typically tweeted this non
sequitur: “So these SVB guys spend all their time funding woke
garbage — ‘climate change solutions’ — rather than actual
banking.” Meanwhile, Stephen Miller, the vampirish mastermind of
Donald Trump’s 2017 Muslim travel ban, asked all too rhetorically
how much time and money that bank had spent on what he called equity,
diversity, and climate “scams.”

Why has the right become so obsessed with climate-friendly banking?
Here’s a clue to answering that question: just as MAGA-world was
celebrating such an interruption in renewable-energy financing,
red-state lawmakers were taking legal aim at private companies and
local leaders considered insufficiently deferential to the fossil-fuel
industry. In state after state, such politicians are now attempting to
dictate the makeup of the American energy supply — sometimes putting
a thumb on the scale, at other times stomping on it.

DICTATING CLIMATE DISRUPTION

Despite the collapse of SVB, the solar industry appears
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in no danger of imploding. Plenty of other lenders are stepping in to
compensate for the loss. But any banks riding to the rescue, or others
that openly support non-fossil-fuel energy, had better brace
themselves. Republican state politicians, wielding a lot more than
mean tweets, are intent on waging all-out war against private
companies that don’t cater to the oil, gas, and coal industries.

No surprise there. The right has long opposed any government action to
curb climate change. Now, financial institutions and other private
companies that, in their decision-making, consider not just profits
but the environment, society, and governance (what’s now coming to
be known as the “ESG” principles) risk finding themselves under
ever heavier fire. The term ESG has been around
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for almost two decades, but the far-right assault on companies that
adopt its precepts goes back only about three years.

This spring — a season in which old men’s thoughts turn to
“woke-ism” and lots of state legislatures are in session — the
crackdown on all things climate is only accelerating. MAGA legislators
and treasurers are putting in place laws and regulations meant to
prohibit state entities like pension funds from even considering
climate issues when choosing where to make investments. Many are also
planning to bar state agencies from doing business of any sort with
private companies that refuse to deal with oil-, gas-, and
coal-related enterprises.

When it comes to climate, it’s increasingly clear: the red-blue
“national divorce
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envisioned by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is already
underway. In 15 of the 19 states
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that emit the most carbon per dollar of production (and, not
coincidentally, are among the top oil, gas, and coal producers),
Republicans have total control of both the statehouse and the
governor’s mansion. Not surprisingly, it’s in those sooty states
that legislative crackdowns on climate-conscious policies are
proliferating. In contrast, at least 15 of the lowest-emitting states
have passed, or at least considered
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bills that aim to prohibit the investment of state funds in the
fossil-fuel business.

In a March 11th post, the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate
Governance reported
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on recent anti-climate activity in states across America. Idaho and
North Dakota now have laws that prohibit officials from taking climate
into account when investing state funds. Legislators in Iowa and
Oklahoma have similar bills in the works, while state treasurers and
attorneys general in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, and
Mississippi have issued policy statements or directives aimed at
punishing any company that considers climate change while making
investment or production decisions.

Even more popular have been bills aimed at punishing private companies
that “boycott” or “discriminate” against what are considered
“ESG-disfavored industries,” particularly those involved in
fossil-fuel or firearm production. Kentucky, New Hampshire, North
Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wyoming currently have
such laws on the books. And just since 2023 began, lawmakers in at
least nine states have introduced “boycott bills” that, according
to the Harvard group, tend to be even “broader or more prescriptive
than initiatives currently in force.”

Newly passed anti-environmental laws have been put into action right
away. For instance, Riley Moore, West Virginia’s treasurer, took the
drastic step of announcing that his state would no longer enter into
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contracts with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and certain other
major banks, because those companies have stopped dealing with the
coal industry. When, on the heels of West Virginia’s ban, the
Kentucky legislature passed its own boycott bill, Moore issued a press
release congratulating his next-door neighbor, saying
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“Kentucky joins our growing coalition of states that have taken
concrete steps to push back against the woke capitalists who are
trying to destroy our energy industries.”

Nor does it stop with banks. The Texas legislature is, for instance,
gunning for insurance companies that refuse coverage to oil and gas
companies. Republican state Senator Bryan Hughes assured the _Dallas
Morning News_ that “we’re pushing back hard” on any insurers
that might consider withdrawing coverage from polluting industries.
“If they’re gonna mess with money that belongs to Texas retirees
and undermine the very Texas economy,” he added indignantly
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“we’re gonna teach them some manners.”

WHO WRITES THESE EXTREME LAWS?

That so many states have been passing such legislation is anything but
a fluke. Like other retrograde measures enacted in GOP-controlled
states, those bills are based on “model legislation” drafted for
legislators by an outfit called the American Legislative Exchange
Council (ALEC). One of that group’s model bills, the Eliminate
Economic Boycotts Act
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is sweeping, if convoluted, in its language. It prohibits state
governments from investing in or dealing with any private company that
“penalizes” or “inflicts economic harm on” another company
because it’s involved in fossil-fuel extraction, logging, mining, or
agriculture.

When the ability of businesses (as well as governmental agencies) to
pursue climate-mitigation policies is restricted, our individual and
collective right to nonviolently protest against climate-busting fuels
becomes that much more important. Alas, that avenue to climate
protection is also being barricaded. Since 2020, such street
demonstrations have increasingly been met with right-wing and police
violence
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while protest directed specifically at fossil fuels is being outlawed
outright. Last year, at _Mother Jones_ magazine, Nina Lakhani reported
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for instance, that ALEC was behind legislation in 24 states that
criminalized grassroots protests against fossil-fuel infrastructure.
By now, anti-protest legislation, most often zeroing in on climate
activists and Indigenous Peoples’ communities, has been introduced
in a staggering 45 states
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Support for oil, gas, and coal is also being orchestrated by an
association of state treasurers located, of course, in this
country’s most carbon-heavy regions. The State Financial Officers
Foundation, with headquarters in Shawnee, Kansas, is, you won’t be
surprised to learn, marshaling red-state financial officers and
attorneys general to do regulatory battle against climate
“wokeism.” Since 2021, it’s been urging state officials,
according to
[[link removed]]_New
York Times_ climate desk reporter David Gelles, “to use their power
to promote oil and gas interests and to stymie Mr. Biden’s climate
agenda.”

That foundation, in turn, received financial support in 2021 not only
from rabidly anti-climate groups like the Heartland Institute and the
American Petroleum Institute, but also from some top financial
services corporations, including Mastercard, Visa, Fidelity, and
JPMorgan Chase. This raised CNBC’s eyebrows
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since those companies also “promote their own sustainability
investment models” like ESG. Indeed, it’s widely expected that
JPMorgan and some of the other big lenders that have been writing
checks to those oily state financial officers will also be filling the
solar-financing gap
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left by the demise of Silicon Valley Bank — diversifying their
portfolios, so to speak.

FORCE-FEEDING FOSSIL FUELIZATION, COMMUNITY BY COMMUNITY

What about those states that find themselves on the other side of the
national climate divorce, the ones rewarding ESG policies? Clearly,
steering public funds away from the fossil-fuel industry is a
much-needed approach in our world (and, by the way, the federal
government could take another step in that direction right now by
eliminating the $10 billion to $50 billion
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in tax subsidies it still grants the industry annually). Of course, to
achieve a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels, far more would be needed.
Market-based measures alone won’t bring about the precipitous
decline in greenhouse-gas emissions that, in terms of extreme weather,
the planet is screaming for ever more desperately. For that, urgent,
direct action would be needed to suppress the extraction and use of
coal, oil, and natural gas.

It goes without saying that coordinated nationwide action of that sort
would be unimaginable in the American political universe of 2023. Even
governors and legislatures determined to reduce carbon emissions can
only achieve so much, given that their states exist in a national
climate-policy vacuum and often share borders with ones in which
increasingly authoritarian state legislatures are violating the local
autonomy
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of communities and municipalities by force-feeding them fossil fuels.

For instance, Tennessee passed a law
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governments from taxing or regulating any of the state’s energy
infrastructure — with one qualification. The measure _does not_
prohibit “a local action that affects facilities for the
transmission, distribution, collection, conversion, and use of solar
energy.” In the Volunteer State, you see, solar power is fair game
for regulation and taxation, while fossil-fuel power is not.

As of last year, almost 20 states
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all of them with legislatures under full Republican control, had laws
on the books that forbid local governments from banning fossil-fuel
gas connections in newly built homes. Even more intrusive is a Florida
law that blocks local governments “from restricting fuel sources
distributed and used by electric and gas utilities, power generators,
pipeline operators, and propane dealers.”

As they snatch away the right of local communities to prevent not just
pollution but the destruction of our world, such states are following
a path that Texas blazed eight years ago. In 2015, local officials
across the Lone Star State moved to ban the hazardous toxic-drilling
method known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” In response,
state legislators passed and Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill
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that forbids municipalities from regulating oil and gas operations.

Tom Giovanetti, president of a right-wing Dallas think tank, penned a
commentary
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supporting such suppression of local governance. Apparently unaware
that he was coming up with some pretty good satire, he wrote,

“It’s absolutely true that the closer political power is to the
people, the more responsive political power tends to be. But that can
be a two-edged sword. Local governments are at least as capable as the
feds of passing laws and ordinances that violate the presumption of
liberty in the Constitution… Tyranny isn’t OK just because it is
approved by a majority of your fellow townsfolk.”

Tyranny indeed! And don’t forget the “tyranny” of a world
growing ever hotter and more extreme by the year.

THEY KEEP US OFF BALANCE, IN FEAR

When MAGA legislators force their taxpayers to support the coal, oil,
and natural gas industries, while undercutting the efforts of local
governments to free their communities from fossil fuels, they’re not
just empowering their fossil-fuelized campaign donors. Their
anti-climate laws and regulations are also part of a broader effort to
impose ever tighter right-wing political discipline on society. To
that end, the authors of such laws — directly out of the
authoritarian playbook — are intentionally vague about what
constitutes “boycotting” or “discrimination.”

They don’t spell out, for example, what a fund manager can or cannot
consider in deciding which companies to invest in. That kind of
vagueness is woven into all sorts of anti-democratic bills and laws
that have been bubbling up in state governments lately. It’s
intended to keep those of us who care about this planet’s future and
that of our children and grandchildren off balance, fearful, and less
likely to do what’s needed to keep our world safe, sane, and
functioning reasonably well.

Like a doctor who might delay aborting an ectopic pregnancy until
it’s too late because his state’s anti-abortion law doesn’t
specify how “near death
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the mother must be before he can do so without going to prison, like
the teacher who might censor her own lessons because she can’t be
sure certain historical information won’t lead a student to feel
ashamed
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of being white and falsely report her for teaching “critical race
theory,” like the journalist who might shrink from covering a story
about a MAGA politician for fear of being wrongly sued for defamation
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it’s easy to imagine investment advisors who handle state pension
funds or contractors who sell to state governments fearing not also
doing business with oil and gas companies so they won’t be accused
of “discrimination” or “boycotting” and lose their contracts.

It turns out that we don’t even have to imagine that last scenario;
it’s already happening. As Gelles of the _Times_ recently reported
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“There are some indications that the conservative pushback [against
climate-friendly investing] is gaining traction. Vanguard, one of the
world’s largest investment firms, recently withdrew from the Net
Zero Asset Managers initiative, an effort intended to get
institutional money managers engaged in the fight against climate
change.”

This is bad news. At the very moment when the world’s most
knowledgeable scientists are warning
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that an all-too-literal hell lies in store for us, tinpot legislators
in MAGA states are preparing to enforce the dominance of a deeply
fossil-fuelized version of capitalism. If so, the repercussions
won’t stay confined within any state’s borders. All 50 states will
be affected. That means, in turn, that communities are going to have
to fight ever harder for the right of all of us to a livable future.
Meanwhile, purple- and blue-state legislatures need to pass tougher
laws that can help undermine the fossil-fuel industry. And the rest of
us will have to focus big time on how best to flush coal, oil, and
natural gas out of the economy for good before it’s too late.

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Stan Cox, along with and Paul Cox, is the author of How the World
Breaks: Life in Catastrophe's Path, From the Caribbean to Siberia.

* Oil
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* Gas Lobbies; State Legislation; MAGA states;
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