West Virginia coal miners are ready to help restore America’s energy independence, we just need President Joe Biden and his liberal allies to get out of our way.
President Biden, his private jet-setting Climate Envoy John Kerry, and corporate executives like Larry Fink of BlackRock have been busy in recent years trying to pressure banks and corporations to cut off financing and business with American coal, oil and natural gas companies.
As a native and representative of West Virginia’s Coal Country, I know it’s time we stand up to protect our interests. That’s why this past session, I introduced Senate Bill 262 to declare that our state wants the free markets to remain free. My colleagues agreed, and passed it by a wide margin.
Senate Bill 262 will allow the State Treasurer’s Office to stop doing business with banks that boycott the coal, oil and natural gas industries. It’s now on Gov. Jim Justice’s desk awaiting his signature.
In an opinion piece dated March 15, Charleston resident Lewis Payne tried to argue this bill was “anti-capitalist” public policy. In fact, the opposite is true. Senate Bill 262 is our state’s way of calling for a return to true capitalism, where investment decisions are decided by honest analyses of business decisions, while standing up to the so-called “woke capitalists” who are trying to use corporate power to advance a radical social agenda.
In recent years, social activists have been invading corporate boards trying to get companies to enact policies based not on sound business principles, but preferred political outcomes. They have been manipulating the movement of adopting corporate Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) principles to advance their agenda. Fossil fuel divestment is one aspect of this agenda.
These activists are trying to immediately stop banks and financial institutions from doing business with coal, oil and natural gas firms not because they think the businesses are unprofitable – when in fact, they’re making record profits during today’s energy crisis – but because they don’t like the industry.
In West Virginia, this is an immediate problem that requires collective action to address. Our state’s economy, and a large portion of its tax base, is tied to fossil-fuel extraction. If these companies want to diminish our economy and tax base, then we should take that into consideration when we make business decisions on behalf of our state.
Ask yourself: If a bank publicly announced it would stop doing business with the company you work for, leading to the layoffs of your co-workers and friends, would you think differently about using that bank to deposit your paycheck? If a bank comes out and says they’re going to engage in behaviors that will hurt West Virginia’s economy, I think we should think twice about doing business with that bank. This isn’t anti-capitalist – this is using our power as a market participant to decide we’re going to take our business elsewhere.
Beyond that, there’s a real conflict of interest when a bank says they don’t want to do business with fossil fuel companies, yet they’d be perfectly happy handling our severance tax revenue. If they say they don’t want to do business with extraction industries, then we shouldn’t let them handle revenue that comes from them either. Mr. Payne seems to think Senate Bill 262 won’t matter because our state’s banking contracts are a “drop in the bucket” when compared to their total balance sheet. But he’s missing the bigger picture.
Our state’s Treasurer, Riley Moore, has been leading a national coalition of 15 states, representing more than $700 billion in this effort. West Virginia is leading the way in this. As we pass this bill, more states will follow, and that will lead to a significant amount of potential business that these banks could stand to lose.
Second, Mr. Payne said we can’t stop the ESG tide from taking over. I beg to differ. What started out as a movement to take more than financial factors into account when making business decisions has exploded into taking on whatever issue these radicals are outraged by on a given day.
Today we’re talking about fossil fuel investments, tomorrow it could be gun manufacturers. Soon, families may have to sign ESG statements when they apply for a car or home loan. What if your income comes from an industry that’s fallen out of favor with the ESG crowd? What if you don’t agree with their politics? It’s a slippery slope, and we have to stem the tide before it gets further out of hand.
West Virginia is leading the way to stand up to the woke capitalists that are out for our jobs. Senate Bill 262 is an essential part of this effort, and Gov. Justice should sign it into law.