West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore has a delicate balance to maintain after the passage of state Senate Bill 262 authorized his office to restrict banking contracts with any bank or investment group that refuses to deal with coal, oil and natural gas companies or terminates existing contracts with fossil fuel companies as a way to punish companies that don’t fall in line with environmental, social and governance standards.
Traditionally, of course, the Republican Party has been the party that believed we will achieve economic prosperity if we let the free market do its thing, rather than meddling through big government.
But too many of today’s “Republicans” have begun to get their way in Charleston, and have been successful in creating legislation based on frustrations borne out of a refusal to accept the diversification and evolution of our economy.
“Earlier this year our office proposed, and the legislature passed, Senate Bill 262 to push back against unfair discrimination against our coal, oil and natural gas industries by the financial sector as part of the so-called … ‘ESG’ investing movement,” Moore said. “We’ve now demonstrated we are serious about enforcing this law.”
BlackRock Inc., the Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase and Co., Morgan Stanley, U.S. Bancorp, and Wells Fargo and Co. have received notices they will be placed on the state’s Restricted Financial Institutions List.
Take a look at that list, folks. Full enforcement would mean those companies are unable to enter into financial contracts with the state.
Are we doing ourselves any favors? And, are we doing the right thing by interfering with the free market?
Moore can be forgiven for understanding why such a measure was an effective piece of political showmanship, here in the Mountain State. His task now, if he is to do right by West Virginians, is not so simple.
Source: weirtondailytimes.com
