Judges and Money: Lots of Fink-Related News From Texas
Well, it took too long to get around to doing it, but officials for the Texas Permanent School Fund (PSF) notified notorious ESG investment house BlackRock, led by CEO Larry Fink, that it was divesting its huge $8.5 billion investment with Blackrock due to that company’s persistent discrimination against the Texas oil and gas industry.
The reason for this move is two-fold:
The PSF derives the vast preponderance of its funds - more than $1 billion annually - from oil and gas revenues related to mineral rights bequeathed to it by the State of Texas in the West Texas Permian Basin.
The 2021 session of the Texas Legislature passed a law, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, ordering the Texas Comptroller’s office to identify any ESG investment companies who, like BlackRock, discriminate against funding oil and gas projects, as Fink and his compatriots have done consistently over the last 15 years and more. Any Texas-run fund then has a legal obligation to terminate any and all investments with such firms.
The move against BlackRock related to the PSF is just the first of what we should expect to become a series of divestments of ESG money from it and other Texas funds like its Teacher Retirement Fund, the Permanent University Fund that provides capital to both The University of Texas and Texas A&M systems, and various other investment funds managed by the state.