OKLAHOMA CITY – State Treasurer Todd Russ announced that his office added Barclays PLC to the Oklahoma Treasurer’s Restricted Financial Companies List of institutions that are considered hostile to energy companies.
Russ has determined that Barclays PLC is another financial company ineligible for state contracts “because they have publicly committed to boycott fossil-fuel companies.”
Barclays PLC set project restrictions with direct financial boycotts to ‘Energy Groups’ against any expansion or infrastructure projects, Russ charged. “They are targeting coal mining and power companies, stating that ‘from 2024 we will no longer provide project finance, or other direct finance to energy companies, for new upstream oil and gas projects or related infrastructure.’ By January 2025, Barclays PLC ‘expect[s] all ‘Energy Groups’ to produce transition plans and decarbonization strategies’ far exceeding Oklahoma’s requirements, Russ said.
The Oklahoma Energy Discrimination Elimination Act of 2022 requires the Treasurer to identify financial institutions that boycott energy companies.
According to Title 74 of the State Statutes, to ‘boycott’ an energy company means: “Without an ordinary business purpose, refusing to deal with, terminating business activities with, or otherwise taking any action that is intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or limit commercial relations with a company because the company engages in the exploration, production, utilization, transportation, sale, or manufacturing of fossil-fuel based energy and does not commit or pledge to meet environmental standards beyond applicable federal and state law.”
With these examples of “extreme environmental investment strategies,” Russ said his office will continue to “thoroughly review financial companies doing business with the State of Oklahoma whose ESG [environmental, social and governance] policies commit to driving unattainable expectations and demands.”
Oklahoma’s tax dollars and state pension funds “will not be used to sabotage the state’s vital fossil-fuel based industries, whether those strategies target current investment policies or long-term goals,” Russ said.
In the third installment of the Treasurer’s banned list, Barclays PLC was added to BlackRock Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America, State Street Corp., and Climate First Bank.
The list is published on the treasurer’s website and is subject to revision annually but not more than quarterly “as needed.” BlackRock, others dispute state claims Climate First’s chief executive officer said last May that his bank does not do any business with the State of Oklahoma.
JPMorgan Chase said Russ’s decision is “baseless – as the nation’s largest bank, we are among the top financers across the energy sector, including traditional energy sources,” the company wrote in response to an inquiry from Southwest Ledger.
“Between 2021 and 2022 we provided over $2 billion in financing and other services to 40 Oklahoma companies in the oil and gas space. Our business practices are not in conflict with this anti-free market decision, and we look forward to continuing to serve customers and communities in Oklahoma.”
JPMorgan Chase had assets totaling $3.2 trillion as of Dec. 31, 2022, according to the Federal Reserve.
State Street also disagreed with the Treasurer’s analysis. “State Street does not discriminate against oil and gas companies, or any other industry sectors,” the company stated. “We would welcome the chance to work with policymakers to provide them further clarity on our stance and to address their concerns.”
State Street, based in Boston, Massachusetts, is the nation’s 12th largest bank, with $293.2 billion in assets as of April 2, according to the Federal Reserve.
An inquiry Southwest Ledger sent to Wells Fargo went unanswered.
BlackRock responded that it is “a leading investor in the Oklahoma energy sector. On behalf of our clients, we invest over $15 billion in public energy companies based in Oklahoma and $320 billion in public energy companies globally. We invest billions more in renewable energy firms.”
Earlier this year Russ, the public official who manages the list of financial institutions banned from doing business with state entities because of their policies deemed hostile to the oil and gas industry, praised three banks and investment firms that are still on his banned list after they dropped their membership in Climate Action 100+.
Russ commended JPMorgan Chase, State Street, and BlackRock for their departure from the global investment coalition that has pressured companies to decarbonize.
JPMorgan Chase and State Street quit Climate Action 100+, and BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, scaled back its ties to the organization by transferring its membership to an international entity.
Collectively, the troika accounted for a withdrawal of nearly $14 trillion from an organization bent on marshaling Wall Street’s clout to expand the climate agenda.
Climate Action 100+ “required big investors like BlackRock to act like climate regulators,” Russ wrote in his announcement. The association asked its members to “cause radical changes throughout the economy for the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” Treasurer sued An Oklahoma County judge denied the Treasurer’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Oklahoma’s law that forbids state government entities from doing business with financial institutions that “discriminate” against the oil and gas industry.
District Judge Sheila Stinson issued her ruling in February after listening to arguments and reviewing legal briefs filed by attorneys for both parties.
Donald Keenan of Glenpool, a retired state employee, sued Russ over his enforcement of House Bill 2034, the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act of 2022. Court records indicate the case is still active.